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BE STRONG TO HOPE 



COURAGE AND COMFORT 



THAT CONCERN 



THE MINISTRY OF TROUBLE 



BY 



REV. FRANK S. CHILD. 
>7^ 



1888 s: 



NEW YORK : 

The Baker & Taylor Company, 9 Bond Street. 

mdccclxxxviii. 






J>^ 



The Library 
of Congress 

WASHINGTON 



Copyrighted 1887, by 
Frank S. Child. 



PRINTED BY 

L. C. Childs & Son. 



LC Control Number 




tm P 96 028675 



HIS CENTURY-OLD FRIEND, 

MRS. BETSEY AVERILL, 

THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED, 

BY 

THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 



A life journey that stretches through a century, elects one to the 
office of precious teacher. And when one's life journey has been 
made in fellowship with Christ, it multiplies the worth and profit of the 
office. The author counts it great joy that he has been privileged to 
glean many helpful messages as he communed with a century old 
saint. The grace, the dignity, the faithfulness of this remarkable 
woman, have made their loyal witness through three generations. 
Modest, wise, generous, tireless she has lived in good obedience to 
her Lord. The schooling of the hundred years has been diligently 
mastered. And she speaks with tenderest spirit and happiest devo- 
tion concerning these same disciplines of time. It is not as text for 
instruction that the author inscribes this book to his aged friend. He 
has woven many of her interpretations of life into these pages. And 
the elect lady has illustrated these same messages of comfort by a char- 
acter of rare beauty and merit. The author endeavors to twist these 
truth strands into a piece of firm, strong cordage. It is his wish and 
prayer that Mrs. Averill may walk a little distance with us in this the 
second centuiy of her living, and that she may continue to rejoice in 
these familiar truths which bind her to the heart of Christ ! 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

I. Statement, ------ 9 

II. Pain, - - 19 

III. Care, ------- 33 

IV. Worry, ------ 47 

V. Tribulation, - - - - - - 61 

VI. Suffering-, ------ 73 

VII. Discipline, ------ 87 

VIII. Adjustment, 101 



STATEMENT. 



STATEMENT. 

"Man Is born unto trouble as the sparks fly up- 
ward." That is the phraseology of Eliphaz the 
Temanite, and it is statement that cannot be con- 
troverted. But we want a better interpretation of 
it than is common to the storm-beset traveler. And 
it is the Bible that translates trouble into clear, 
vigorous, understandable terms. We turn heaven- 
ward with the psalmist and say, " Give us help from 
trouble, for vain is the help of man ; through God 
we shall do valiantly." In the first place we must 
face the fa<5ls of the case. These f acts are indicated 
by the statement of Eliphaz — the commonness of 
trouble — its variations and its continuity. It is 
not restricted to class or condition. " Great folks 
must go as well as little," said a peasant woman in 
Covent Garden as she learned the death of Queen 
Charlotte, "The Lord receive us all." 

Trouble is incident to human life. There is no 
escape from it, and its commonness is equalled by 
its multiplicity. The forms of trouble are myriad. 
There is a kind of terror for the soul in its fitful- 
ness and transition. " What next ? " you sometimes 
hear the stricken, affrighted soul exclaim as one 
day of anguish dies and opportunity is made for 
the living of another. Those of us who meet dis- 
aster magnify our particular experience; and hearts 
that see their cherished schemes miscarry, yield 
them to a gloom of spirit that destroys the well- 



1 2 Courage and Comfort that Concern 

doing of many days. But what is harder than sick- 
ness ? and with what facility disease adapts itself 
to the peculiarities of diverse constitutions ? The 
short sickness breaks in upon one's labor with 
a carelessness that is positively hateful. There is 
no good reason why the man should be confined to 
a chamber ten days while the affairs of a great es- 
tate, or the interests of a vast business centre in 
him — no good reason for it as he thinks monoton- 
ously, wearisomely upon the thing, and it excites 
his opposition or disgust or anger. He is apt to 
complain and give way to vexation. The sickness 
may touch the mother with a persistent grip. How 
can a mother who has a large household and in- 
numerable tasks, ever find time to be ill ? She can't 
find the time. She will fight disease, infirmity, 
weariness until they three will rise in all the strength 
of outrage and frenzy and maltreat her in a way 
that makes the great heart of humanity cry "mercy ; " 
and then the household runs itself and things speed- 
ily get into confusion worse confounded, and the 
worn mother submits humbly to the oblivion of fever. 
The sickness may company with youth. That 
seems sadly incongruous and contrary to rightness. 
Does not the Bible tell one to rejoice in his youth? and 
what chance for rejoicing when youth is crippled 
and unnerved and imprisoned? The young man. 
has spent honest, industrious years in the work of 
preparation. Money, time, service, energy, life, have 
all gone into preparation, and he has just made 



The Ministry of Trouble. 13 

happy entrance upon his promiseful field. A storm 
gathers in the east. The sky is overcast. The clouds 
burst and he is borne to the ground by the fury of 
tempest. Tell me a more inscrutable mystery than 
that which involves itself in the' enforced seclusion, 
the long, painful exile, the uncertain, sorrowful 
awaitings that mark these years of sickness. A 
sense of in describable shame seems to clothe 
the youth as with a garment — that he so young, 
hopeful, laborious, well-accoutred, enthusiastic, 
should be sent from the field and given over to an- 
guishful inactivity ! " Know how to wait," said 
Guthlac to Ethelbald of Mercia, "and the kingdom 
will come to thee ; not by violence or rapine, but by 
the hand of God." Is that the special teaching for 
the year? God knoweth. He will explain. 

But trouble is featured by a tireless continuity. 
It never seems to end. There are spells of inter- 
mission. But they are specious so far as the most 
of us are concerned, for we have a feeling that 
" something is going to happen," for the very reason 
that our respite makes us realize the unnaturalness 
of a troubleless day. Yes, there is no end to the 
strange experience. We are born to trouble as the 
sparks fly upward. Memory serves us when we 
have nothing else in hand. Anticipation joins with 
memory, and the two keep us in a state of enliven- 
ment and misery that would be well-nigh tragic 
were it not so sadly grotesque. The text, " sufficient 
unto the day is the evil thereof," is one that few 



14 Courage and Comfort that Concern 

people master ; " and to those who lie out of the road 
of great afflictions," says Walter Scott in Guy Man- 
nering, " are assigned petty vexations which answer 
all the purpose of disturbing their serenity." 

But we have dwelt upon these obvious facts with 
all needful insistence. What shall we say as to the 
significance of trouble. Is there hate, annoyance, 
revenge, chance, fate in the thing, or shall we con- 
strue it into wise teaching, solicitous guidance, loyal 
interference, helpful stimulation? ' An interpreta- 
tion of trouble that reflects the thought of God, has 
supreme importance when you come down to prac- 
tical matters. Putting God away from the spirit 
or putting one's self away from God is courting dark- 
ness, failure, despair, when we face the problem of 
trouble. There are men whose souls are brave — 
whose hearts are purposeful. But the long-sought 
opportunity evades them. They turn toward life 
with mighty zeal of achievement, but sickness, cir- 
cumstance, condition, negative their purpose. Life 
is reduced to an experience of waiting. That is. 
trouble that has the somberest aspect. The man 
consumes his precious vitality in feeding disease 
or truckling to limitations. " Give me my task, O 
God," is the prayer that daily rises in accents of 
pitiful entreaty, but the even tenor of the petty,, 
hampered way changes not, and the man abides in. 
the deep shadows. Gyves are upon his wrists and 
ankles. He is helpless, and yet there lives in his soul 
the conviction that God has work for him to do. It is 



The Ministry of Trouble. 15 

no small matter to say hopefully to such a man, 
"know how to wait." Why must he tarry in the 
solitary chamber ? He is well equipped for royal 
service — nevertheless it is his singular experience 
that he so strong, alert, wise, devout, must be taught 
through affliction. The kingdom will come to him 
by the hands of God when full days of preparation 
are recorded. Who can interpret the necessities of 
the spirit as the wise and loving Father ? 

Now we can. steel ourselves against troubles and 
show a bold front as they assail us ; but that does 
not rhyme with the spirit of the gospel. Stoicism 
is not Christianity. Stern endurance makes discord 
when you parallel it with glad submission. Then 
we can yield us to trouble with a kind of hardened 
passiveness that has no faith or courage or vitality 
in it. There is possibility that a* soul may breathe 
the anaesthetics of despair, so that troubles produce 
the slightest and transientest sensations. But these 
methods do not commend themselves. The truth 
of it is that trouble cannot be evaded or intimidated 
or scourged. It has a ministry. How deep the im- 
pression of its service when it enters the home as 
the messenger of death ? The child that you love 
laughs her love into your heart. The eyes image 
love — the dimpled cheek presses love as it nestles 
against your breast — the very lips kiss love into your 
life, and this beautiful, priceless child-flower withers 
when some disease frost hovers close to it with its 
deathful breath. You put the little form to rest. 



1 6 Courage and Comfo7't that Concern 

"Oh God, that I were sleeping by her side !" that 
is your piteous outcry. But your thought gets 
turned heavenward. The love cords that fastened 
you to earth are made to relax — a realness that 
concerns the blessed immortality of the dead who 
die in the Lord takes substantial form in your life — 
affections are curiously and assuredly transported 
into the realm of the everlasting and all glorious. 
Your very nature is mellowed, ripened, sanctified 
by the subtle, precious influences of your sorrow. 
Behold, you are made perfect through suffering. 
Strange law, inscrutable f a6t, inevitable experience ! 
What is this Ministry of Trouble that we may get 
its comfort, its inspiritment, its healthfulness and 
its benediction ! 

We have made swift statement. "We are born 
to trouble as the sparks fly upward." There is a 
certain mystification and incomprehensibleness 
about the matter as we give it swift and unsympa- 
thetic gaze. The score of a symphony is a complex 
and suggestive thing. Uneducated eyes do not read 
the method, motive, movement that are told by the 
written language of music. Solo, chorus, voice, 
transition, acclamation, woof of melody with warp 
of accompaniment ; startling variations, delicate 
shadings, and all confused, exalted by little sharps 
and flats that contain infinite possibilities of discord 
or harmony ! That same score, when perfectly in- 
terpreted, bears one throneward and prostrates the 
spirit before God. The score of this world-life 



The Ministry of Trouble. 17 

symphony is infinitely complex and variegated. It 
is a study of sharps and flats with us — this inquiry 
concerning the Ministry of Trouble. But we are 
sure that the sharps and flats named troubles will 
all be finally adjusted to the rich and masterful 
melody that phrases God's glory. 



PAIN. 



PAIN. 

"Why is my pain perpetual?" * * Jer. xv : 15. 

The prophet asks a pertinent question. Pain is 
certainly a common thing. It comes into every life 
with a force and a persistency that appall us. And 
the words of Christ touch common life so wisely and 
so helpfully, that we are sure they will instruct us in 
this matter of pain. "We know that the whole cre- 
ation groaneth and travaileth in pain together 
until now." There is a mystery about it that 
we do not attempt to solve. We simply confess 
its presence and operation ; then we set ourselves to 
the task of learning its serviceableness and applying 
to ourselves its unforgetable instructions. Pain, we 
readily see, is a sort of sentinel," warning us that 
the enemy approaches. The twinge in the foot 
or the eye means that disease or abuse is making 
its record. The parched lips, the inflamed stomach, 
the unsteady gait, the aching head, the dazed brain, 
the sense of shame, the feeling of desperation, the 
stings of conscience, these pains mean that the man 
has wronged himself and wronged his Creator; these 
pains mean that penalty has its onerous, misery- 
making offices. For pain is punishment ; that is 
the derivation of the word — the Latin poena — 
punishment. Pain, as Trench tells us, is the cor- 
relative of sin. The word "itself no less than 
the conscience of every one that is suffering it de- 



22 Courage and Comfort that Concern 

clares it." Pain warns us with stern tone and firm 
bearing. There is nothing timid or bashful about 
it. It is never hindered by reticence or modesty. 
But this is one of the minor offices of pain. It warns, 
restrains, corrects, plagues. But it is pain in its 
higher office that we propose to study. It has a 
moral significance. Christ instructs us with marked 
earnestness concerning the moral bearing of pain. 

Pain of body and pain of mind — they are inti- 
mately related. We do not tarry to discriminate 
them; taking the economy of nature as it is pre- 
sented to us, we observe that sin being a factor, pain 
enters as a thing of necessity. Sunshine means 
heat ; storm clouds mean moisture ; sin means suf- 
fering. "There is none righteous, no not one." 
That helps to answer Jeremiah's inquiry, " why is 
my pain perpetual ?" 

There is pain for self's sake. The law says that 
we are to let our moderation be known unto all men. 
The body is to be fostered with a wise solicitude 
and consistent treatment. It is a servant. The 
soul is master. The servant should never be per- 
mitted to reverse this relation and gain the master- 
ship. But that is the history when appetites and 
passions control the man. The man sinks into serf- 
dom. The pampered body tramples upon the rights, 
privileges, powers of the soul and such disorder 
brings pain into the life. Body pains and mind 
pains go hand in hand. Gluttony, sensuality, they 
defile the body, lead to diseases that riot with 



The Ministry of Trouble. 23 

excruciating pains and at the same time induce an 
irritability and a repulsion and a wretchedness of 
mind that make life a loathsome experience for 
one's self, and a hateful, weary martyrdom for one's 
friends. There is no respite nor relief so long as 
one remains in such condition of defiance. " What- 
soever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." 
When men sow to the flesh they get their woful 
harvest of flesh disease and physical suffering. 
Pain for such men is thoroughly punishment. A 
recent cable dispatch tells of a woman who haunted 
the gaming tables of Monte Carlo during the sum- 
mer. She carried with her a fortune of $60,000. 
She was inflamed by the wickedness of this gaming 
hell. All sense of womanhood and decency were 
forfeited in her infatuation. She played with reck- 
less hand. She tried to drown her wretchedness in 
wild gains ; and when her fortune was gone the 
degraded, frenzied creature hastened to a village 
near Grenoble and there became her own murderer. 
And this, says the record, is the seventy-sixth sui- 
cide of one Monte Carlo season. " No man can 
serve two masters, for either he will* hate the 
one and love the other, or else hold to the one and 
despise the other." "Every tree that bringeth not 
forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the 
fire." Just what these two sayings mean when 
translated into terms of pain I leave you to judge. 
Illustrations are too common and too tragic to re- 
quire explanation. This is pain in one sense for the 



24 Courage and Comfort that Concern 

self's sake. It is pain that conies as unavoidable, 
righteous punishment. It is deserved, courted, made 
certain. But there is pain for self's sake which is 
disciplinary and educative. Choice flowers require 
rank soil. It is one of the marvellous things of 
plant life that rare strength, beauty, fragrance, 
thrive upon the f etted rotten soil. Pain is the kind 
of soil in which some of the rarest flowers of char- 
acter grow. Patience, compassion, graciousness, 
charity, they demand large fertilization of the pain 
kind. The thirteenth chapter of I. Corinthians 
makes elaborate statement of the matter. One 
must live many rough experiences and weather 
many hard trials before the soul manifests a dis- 
position which suffereth long and is kind. It is 
grand achievement when the soul has attained that 
condition of life where she " doth not behave herself 
unseemly ; seeketh not her own ; is not easily pro- 
voked ; thinketh no evil ; rejoiceth not in iniquity ; 
but rejoiceth in the truth ; beareth all things ; be- 
lieveth all' things ; hopeth all things ; endureth all 
things." But this description signifies great meas- 
ures of pain. It doesn't seem such a great task 
when we first read of it, that Grace Darling, living 
by the Northumberland reefs, should save life after 
life through her singular ministry to distress. Why! 
she could swim and her gentle heart was moved with 
pity in this T service for men. But that is a small and 
niggard way in which to interpret it. There was 
unreckonable pain in this ministry. Pains of body — 



The Ministry of Trouble. 25 

the buffeting of winds and waves, fatigue, rough 
usage, wounds, weakness, the strain of nerves, the 
shattering of muscles, the forfeiture of vital power, 
tremendous risks to physical life — pains of mind — 
eagerness, uncertainty, tension, anguish, a sympathy 
that was full of suffering, a determination that was 
toned by the largest self-abnegation, a hope that 
was cheered by the noblest emotion. Think of 
the pain which was compressed into the structure 
of this womanhood. Grace Darling's sister recently 
died. She was a plain, modest, pious woman. " Oh," 
said she, when people spake with her concerning 
the precious labor of Grace Darling, "it was just 
plain matter of duty, nothing for the world to talk 
so much about." True. But I want you to notice 
what it cost this brave, great woman. I want you 
to reckon, so far as they are reckonable, the pains 
endured ; and then observe that this is illustrative 
of Christ's great law concerning pain. " Whosoever 
will be great among you, let him be your minister, 
and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be 
your servant. Even the son of man came not to be 
ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life 
a ransom for many." This marks out the line of 
sufferingness. It is this pain which emphasizes its 
instruction day by day, that is drilling and shaping 
the man, the woman into fortitude, endurance, mas- 
tery. This is the kind of soil that cherishes the 
rarest flowers. Pain supplies the needful sustenance. 
Without it these rare flowers never unfold them- 
selves and disclose their beauteousness. 



26 Courage and Comfort that Concern 

But there is pain that must be borne for men's 
sake. We are part of a great scheme. The selfish- 
ness of a man antagonizes the entire body of hu- 
manity. We cannot destroy the fact that all men 
share our common life and destiny. We may try 
to ignore it, we may put ourselves into an attitude 
of denial, but our course makes its impression ; our 
individuality goes for its full weight. The wires 
that are twisted into the massive cables of the 
Brooklyn bridge have as large opportunity and as 
good reason for denying their relation to each other 
and their relations to the structure, as have men the 
opportunity and the reason to deny their human 
relationships and obligations. So Christ says that 
we must learn the ministry of pain in our per- 
son as it bears upon the life and character of our 
fellows. Then said Christ unto his disciples, " It is 
impossible . but that offences will come, but woe 
unto him through whom they come," Luke xvii : i. 
There is a great burden of pain for us to bear. 
That pain holds definite relation to the work of the 
world. We read the brief notes which Bishop Han- 
nington made in his journal as he crossed Africa in 
his last tragic missionary journey. The journal 
tells how he was attacked by twenty natives, over- 
powered and dragged a long distance. It tells how 
he was stripped and nobbed ; how he was thrown 
into a hut thas was loathsome with vermin and de- 
cayed matter. It tells how he lay there ill and 
helpless, while drunken natives and derisive guards 



The Ministry of Trouble. 27 

peered into his confinement. On the eighth day he 
makes this brief last pathetic note : " No news ; a 
hyena howled all night, smelling a sick man ; hope 
he will not have me yet." And shortly afterward 
the brave, faithful bishop was slaughtered. Here 
is a narrative of pain that moves the soul with 
mighty impulse. The moral impression of such 
teaching is incalculable. We cannot tell what work 
of truth teaching it did for these poor deluded 
savages. We are fain to believe that such char- 
acter must have rayed its brightness into the ob- 
scurity of some curious, observant hearts. But we 
can pronounce with considerable definiteness con- 
cerning the moral impression of this suffering as it 
bears upon Christendom. A throb of sympathy 
surges through the world. Men are.strangely taught 
the power of Christian purpose. Instead of reproach 
and vindictiveness on the part of the Church, the 
call sounds for recruits to martyrdom. The heathen 
must be taught the way of life, and so it results 
that a company of men, fired with loyalty to Christ, 
make offering of themselves and prepare to pene- 
trate into these dark places of the world and suffer 
for the sake of ignorant and godless nations. 

And there is pain that must be borne for God's 
sake. There is such a thing as witness to the truth. 
Conflict assumes a sort of impersonal character. 
We stand for right. The personal element is small 
and obscure. A certain course, a specified attitude, 
are synonymous with right. That induces perse- 



28 Courage and Comfort that Concern 

cution. Pain, as Bushnell says, "becomes the in- 
terpreter of wrong." " Remember the word that I 
said unto you. The servant is not greater than 
his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will 
also persecute you." — John xv : 20. This is pain that 
is avoidable. We can shirk the work. We can re- 
fuse the duty. Even Christ insists upon the free- 
ness with which the soul elects itself to such suf- 
fering. When the angry crowd, led by Judas, came 
to seize our Saviour, one of his companions drew 
his sword and smote off the ear of the high priest's 
servant. " Then said Jesus unto him, put up again 
thy sword into his place." * * * " Thinkest thou 
that I cannot now pray to my father and he shall 
presently give me more than twelve legions of 
angels." — Matt, xxvi : 32 and 33. But he did not wish 
to avoid the suffering. He stood for truth. Pain 
was a large, mysterious factor in his mission. He 
must suffer. As we are his disciples the same course 
opens to us. "Inquisitor Titelmann heard that 
a certain schoolmaster was addicted to reading 
the Bible. (This was in Holland, 1561, when Philip 
II. was king.) Titelmann examined the school- 
master and discovered that he was a heretic. He 
commanded him to recant. Schoolmaster refused. 
"Do you not love your wife and children?" asked 
the inquisitor. " God knows that if the whole world 
were of gold and my own, I would give it all only 
to have them with me." "You have then only to 
renounce the error of your opinions," said Titel- 



The Ministry of Trouble. 29 

maim. "Neither for wife, children, nor all the 
world can I renounce my God and religions truth," 
answered the prisoner. So the schoolmaster was 
strangled and then burned at the stake. This is pain 
for God's sake. It is unswerving attestation to the 
divineness of the gospel. Here is instance where 
we join with Christ in paying the cost of a regen- 
erated world. "Are ye able to drink of the cup 
that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the 
baptism that I. shall be baptized with?" Jesus put 
this question to the two men that sought preeminence 
in his kingdom. They say unto him, " we are able." 
And he saith unto them, " Ye shall drink indeed of 
my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I 
am baptized with." — Matt, xx : 22 and 23. The pain 
comes — not as righteous visitation upon us for our 
sin, not as penal experience for the iniquities of 
ancestors. The pain scourges us as witness. In 
our small way we stand for right. Opposition and 
antagonism aim at this or that man as he embodies 
truth. The hero may abdicate his position. He 
may renounce the principle that phrases itself in 
his person. But so long as he lives the truth, and 
holds forth the word of life, so long must he share 
the pain that makes him a target. Insult and in- 
nuendo, rough assault and malicious contrivance, 
scorn, abuse, cruelty, harassment, fraud, deceit, in- 
jury, wounding, these are modes and instruments 
which do the wicked work of persecution. 



30 Courage and Comfort that Concern 

It is put with thorough distinctness. We must 
suffer for self's sake. God will bring every man into 
judgment for the deeds done in the body, whether 
they be good or whether they be evil. We must 
suffer for men's sake. As vicar we must bear the 
pains that threaten their dire consequences upon 
our loved ones, and upon the great social order of 
which we are part. " Whosoever shall not take up 
his cross and follow me, cannot be my disciple." 
We must suffer for God's sake. "Ye have heard 
that it has been said ' an eye for an eye, and a tooth 
for a tooth ;' but I say unto you, resist not evil, but 
whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, 
turn to him the other also." — Matt, v : 3S and 39. 
" Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and perse- 
cute you, and shall say all manner of evil against 
you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding 
glad for great is your reward in heaven." The 
pain must come. It takes infinite forms. Disease, 
sorrow, error, work, assault, death, hatred, poverty, 
crime, persecution, defeat. Pain comes through a 
myriad of channels. But it is always pain, and it 
is nothing but pain. It belongs to this world estate. 
We read a part of its significance as it does its task 
of purification and stimulation. And we learn the 
noble attitude of soul concerning pain as we follow 
the Saviour through his toilsome, painful journey 
from the manger to the cross. " Father, forgive 
them, for they know not what they do." Brave, 
invincible pain-bearing ; unselfish, compassionate 



The Ministry of Trouble. 31 

pain-bearing ; Christ frames the full law through 
the unutterable work on Calvary. 

Friends, let us find the help and impulse that lie 
hidden in life's pain. Let us affirm with Conrad, 
king of Germany, " I know what I owe to Jesus ; I 
will go wheresover he shall call me." Then shall we 
seasonably enter that home land in which, says the 
author of Revelation, " there shall be no more pain." 



CARE 



CARE 

" Be not anxious." — Matt, vi : 34. 

There are certain limited regions of the tropics 
in which the necessities of life are reduced to the 
minimum. The climate is torrid, so that the natives 
do not need any wardrobe. The soil is prodigal — 
the bread-fruit, the banana, the cocoanut, supplying 
all essential nourishment. The habits of the inhabi- 
tants are simple and primitive, so that life does not 
demand any show, pomp, extravagance. And the 
people exist without cares. When we fret under the 
friction of our complicated, burdensome life, we 
look with some envy and longing to this state of 
nature. And occasionally we find men who resist 
the pressure of our vast artificial system and flee 
them to the desert or the wilderness. They purpose 
to avoid the wear and work of the great world and 
give themselves to ease or study, or meditation, or 
rebellion. 

We have all felt the strength of such desire and 
purpose. As we have multiplied cares and activi- 
ties, we have all longed to go into retreat for a sea- 
son and comfort ourselves with quiet and release us 
from the restless, dominant spirit of this present 
world life. The man whose interests and relations 
are vast and intricate, has at times a terrible sense of 



36 Courage and Comforfthat Concern 

such necessity. His farms, and stocks, and merchan- 
dise, and ships, and buildings, they mean so much 
care to him that they put other and better things out 
of sight and out of mind. He may say, as did A. T. 
Stewart concerning his enormous business, " Posi- 
tively everything to be done has somebody else to do 
it besides myself." But the fact remains that one man 
stands at the helm., His hand has supreme control. 
The care of the thing reverts to him. The woman 
whose household tasks seem to multiply with each 
day's coming, whose sympathies, and corrections, 
and counsels, and arbitrations, and ingenuities, and 
affections are all the time demanded by her little 
complex, energetic, busy, company of children and 
relations — how does she fling herself down to rest 
with unutterable sense of burdens, responsibilities, 
tasks ? If she could only go into retirement for some 
still, calm hours, how she would gather herself anew 
for the work and go to meet her cares with a force 
of mastership that seems unconquerable. And the 
same deep desire quickens in the heart of all men who 
enter with serious, earnest, noble purpose into the 
vast work of the world. Our cares take such shape 
and increase their number with such unreckonable 
rapidity that we are often staggered by them ; and 
on occasion we yield to their force with a sense of 
defeat that is sadly humiliating. Cares make up a 
large part of life. Cares share in the moulding of 
character. Cares have such close relation to the 
daily narrative of our living that we are sure to 



The Ministry of Trouble. 37 

find how Christ pronounced upon the subject with 
particularity and wisdom. 

It isn't avoidance of care that the Master recom- 
mends. It isn't "take no thought for your life." 
That is a mis-translation. " Be not anxiously care- 
ful for your life;" or " Be not anxious for your life. "It 
is an excess of thoughtfulness — it is an extravagance 
of carefulness that is reprobated and condemned. 
The Master doesn't expect that we shall shirk the 
cares of this world. Men must eat, drink, clothe 
themselves, engage in business, honor domestic re- 
lations, share in the ministry to sickness, poverty, 
distress, — and these things signify a certain burden 
of responsibility. "Am I my brother's keeper?" 
The affirmative reply to this query put by Cain in- 
volves a series of cares that touch the living of 
every day. We don't like it, that our companions, 
acquaintances, fellow creatures, are put into our 
keeping. It isn't comfortable to be told that our 
word, our act, our life, has much to do with the 
goodness or the badness of neighbors and society ; 
but such is the fact and it brings cares into our per- 
sonal experience. We sometimes try to wash our 
hands of the evil courses and consequences which 
imperil people. We imitate Pilot. We refuse to 
countenance the wickedness, but we do not refuse 
our tacit consent to the proceedings. "When Pilot 
saw that he could prevail nothing * * he took 
water and washed his hands before the multitude, 
saying, " I am innocent of the blood of this just 



38 Courage and Comfort that Concern 

person ; see ye to it." — Matt, xxvii. But Pilot con- 
sented to this crime against high heaven. He 
could not wash his hands of it. Christ was Pilot's 
prisoner. He was committed to Pilot's care. And 
tradition follows Pilot in his anguishful remorse to 
the distant lake Pilatus, where he is said to have 
smothered his agony in tempestuous waters. 

The cares come. » They belong to life. They 
have their part in the structure of manhood. But 
we pervert them or misinterpret them, so that they 
work us injury and ruin. 

First we mark the warning in respect to cares ; 
"Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time 
your heart be overcharged with surfeiting and 
drunkenness, and cares of this life." — Luke xxi : 34. 
When cares multiply to such an extent, when 
they assume such importance that we cannot 
give first thought and first love to God, and 
right then we are guilty of this law of Christ. 
That explains the defalcation of such a man as Gray. 
He was reputed honest. He was counted religious. 
But he was ambitious in respect to a prodigal 
style of living. The home establishment and 
the yacht establishment, personal expenditures, 
family expenditures, charitable expenditures, they 
made enormous drain upon his salary, income, cap- 
ital. He was careful about many things, but it was 
carefulness that had little virtue about it. It was a 
carefulness that centered in show, dress, pleasure, 
indulgence. It was a carefulness that pushed right 



The Ministry of Trouble. 39 

out of the plan and drove Christ out of the soul. 
" Take heed to yourselves lest at any time your heart 
he overcharged with the cares of this life." 

We also mark the uselessness of anxiety : 
" Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit 
to his stature?" observed the Master. He was 
speaking to the end that we should feel our God 
dependence. God created us. He set us in this 
system of natural and spiritual laws which holds us 
with its vice-like grip. It is only through an ap- 
propriation of the gifts of God that we attain any 
strength and mastery. We are under complete sub- 
jection to the laws of life. " If," continues Christ, 
" ye then be not able to do that which is least, why 
take ye thought for the rest?" If we cannot say 
" grow " and then grow in response to the command, 
but find ourselves obliged to submit to God's laws, 
which laws shape things into wise form for us, — 
why should we worry about the innumerable de- 
tails of personal life and world life ? We have 
simply to walk in appointed ways, do the appropri- 
ate work, use the ordained means, and we are sure 
of the result. A profound and thorough trust in 
the truth of God gives no opportunity for the play 
of anxiety. Care, a wise, tender, affectionate con- 
cern for the things of life, is legitimate because 
such care is essential to the best living and the nob- 
lest achievement ; but thought that is toned with 
fear and fever, thought that is unnerved by fret and 
f erment,thought that is moved by terror and despair, 



4o Courage and Comfort that Concern 

that serves no good purpose in the life. It hampers 
the man, it curses the man, it destroys the man. 

We also mark the statement that cares are 
apt to obstruct the flow of right life. This is put 
into form by the parable of the sower. Some of the 
seed sowed by the sower " fell among thorns ; and 
the thorns sprang up with it and choked it." The 
seed which fell among thorns, says Christ, " are they 
which, when they have heard, go forth and are 
choked with cares, * * and bring no fruit to 
perfection." — Luke viii : 7-14. There must be a 
reasonable limit to the cares which we assume. 
The chief end of man is to glorify God. We glorify 
God by carving our human nature into the likeness 
of Christ. When we have so much to do in the 
way of making money, attending to business, in- 
dulging pleasures, gratifying tastes, that we leave 
little time or no time for the concerns of the soul, 
we are breaking Christ's law and obstructing the 
flow of right life. It is called hard for rich men, 
prominent men, busy men, to become good men. 
There are apologies which explain the saying, for 
men of large affairs seem to require more than the 
twenty-f onr hours a day. But it is against this very 
devotedness and concentration that the words of 
Christ are aimed. Business and pleasure that inter- 
fere with good character and good growth are oppos- 
ed to the gospel and faith of Jesus. If cares are so 
numerous and burdensome that they distract the man 
and wean him from God, they should be lessened or 



The Ministry of Trouble. 41 

rejected. We are to bring forth fruit to perfection. 
Anything that contradicts such result must receive 
the stamp of disapproval. With what force of incident 
does the Master emphasize this teaching ? Here is 
the simple narrative as told by Luke (x : 38-41 :) 
" Now it came to pass, as they went, that he (Christ) 
entered into a certain village ; and a certain woman 
named Martha received him into her house. And 
she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' 
feet, and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered 
about much serving, and came to him, and said, 
Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left 
me to serve alone ? bid her therefore that she help 
me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, 
Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many 
things ; but one thing is needful ; and Mary hath 
chosen that good part, which shall not be taken 
away from her." Martha was thinking too much 
about entertainment that appealed to the lower 
nature. She was anxious concerning the common 
things of the home life. And her anxiety de- 
stroyed her spiritual balance. She didn't pay good 
attention to the precious truths that Christ spread 
before them. She failed to profit by the gracious 
presence that was rich in all helpfulness. And our 
Lord rebuked her for such mistake and negligence. 
But the tragic aspect of this thing is framed by one 
of our Lord's parables. "A certain man made a 
great supper and bade many " — (Luke xiv : 16-20. ;) 
" and sent his servant at supper time to say to them 
c 



42 Courage and Comfort that Concern 

that were bidden, come, for all things are now 
ready. And they all with one consent began to 
make excuse. The first said unto him, I have 
bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and 
see it ; I pray thee have me excused. And another 
said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to 
prove them ; I pray thee have me excused. And 
another said, I have married a wife, and therefore 
I cannot come. * * Then this master of the 
house was wroth." " I say unto you that none of 
those men which were bidden shall take of my sup- 
per." It was care that these men used as excuse 
for absence. " I have too much money to join the 
Master and be a Christian." " I am too busy with 
common affairs to sit at the Lord's table and com- 
pany with His people." That was the meaning of 
the excuse. And it is the excuse that some of us 
make to-day. And it is an excuse whose tragic 
issue is marked with woeful certainty. " None of 
those men who were bidden shall take of my sup- 
per." The kingdom of heaven is closed forever to 
those foolish, defiant men who give themselves to 
care and refuse the invitation of God. 

We observe then as the result of this care 
study, that Christ forbids all care that has any 
element of fret, worry, fear, and distrust about it. 
This doesn't mean that we are to idle away the 
day, that we are not to plan for the future, that 
we are excused from doing our very best. This 
doesn't mean that we are to take our chances with 



The Ministry of Trouble. 43 

life and make no effort toward competency and com- 
fort. It doesn't mean that we are not to face toil, pain, 
trial, sorrow, loss, calamity, death. But it does 
mean that we are to repose upon the Fatherhood of 
God ; that the Father's knowledge of our needs is 
perfect ; that His great world scheme and His special 
dealing of providence will meet the necessities of 
every case with fitness, precision, vigor, efficiency. 
It is a rich and sublime trust that is taught by 
Christ concerning care. The care we cannot evade 
or dismiss. But the anxiety of care, the tremen- 
dous factor of mental wear and anguish — that we 
must press from this life or we are disobedient to 
the Word of God and bereft of the precious ministry 
of the Spirit. 

Now note the bearing of such instruction upon 
the experience of the day. What is it that pencils 
the lines upon our faces and chisels the furrows 
upon our brows ? It isn't work, it isn't age. It is 
the endless fret of care. The farmer fears that his 
seeds will rot in the ground, or his grains will die 
of thirst, or the winds will blight his fruits, or dis- 
ease destroy his cattle. And the manufacturer 
fears that the price of labor will rise and the profit 
of trade lessen. He thinks that the strength of 
competition will increase, while the demands of the 
people will grow small. And the merchant, he has 
large stock and the markets vary. A change in one 
way brings him fortune ; a change in the other way 
brings him bankruptcy. Then there are storms, 



44 Courage and Comfort that Concern 

illnesses, fires, treacheries, miscalculations, floods, 
wars, monopolies, legislations, — a thousand things 
to complicate business. And business agents are 
all human ; they are subject to indescribable and 
unreckonable variations and influences. 

Well, there is a great deal in life to make us feel 
the dubiousness and the contradictoriness of the 
future. And Christ teaches a man how to meet these 
things with brave spirit, right spirit, invincible 
spirit. The future reposes in the keeping of the 
Almighty. Your anxious mood and vexatious tem- 
per will never help to disentangle the mystery. 
When the morrow comes you may have clearer vis- 
ion, or the way will open with distinctness or the 
situation will be entirely changed. Like the Chris- 
tians in the besieged city of Leyden, you may 
waken to find your enemies fled and the coast 
full clear. Or your strength may multiply for 
the emergency, and reinforcements join you. 
You may sail out upon a smooth sea when 
the night promised a storm. You may find 
that a good pilot stands at the wheel, and if the 
storm comes his firm hands guide you safely 
through the trackless waters. The sea may sud- 
denly calm and all journeyings prove untroubled. 
You may repeat the old experience of Mary and her 
companions at the tomb of Christ : " They came 
unto the grave." "They said among themselves, who 
shall roll us away the stone from the door of the 
sepulchre ? And when they looked they saw that 



The Ministry of Ti-oiible, 45 

the stone was rolled away (for it was very great.)" 
The task had been done for them. They had only 
to enter the tomb. 

Friends, the cares of life are many, and they have 
peculiar virtue as they train us into work, duty, 
service. But they were never distributed to drive 
smiles from the face, or to push goodness from the 
heart, or to expel blessed hope from the life. " Be 
not anxious." 

" Do thy duty, that is best, 
Leave unto the Lord the rest." 



WORRY. 



WORRY. 

" Let me not see my wretchedness." — Numbers x : 15. 
"And the Lord said unto Moses, is the Lord's hand waxed 
short ? " — Numbers x : 23. 

This prophet Moses seems kinned to the whole 
world. He passes through dark hours, somber 
moods, misery experiences, just like the rest of us. 
It is almost pitiable to think of it. Moses ought to 
show himself a man unmoved by the common things 
of life. Has he not f ellowshipped with God in close 
and marvellous way ? Has he not been elected to a 
work of magnificent proportions and illimitable con- 
sequences ? Has he not been endowed with unique 
powers and taken the noble part "of law writer for a 
people ? Surely such a man ought not to yield to 
the pressure of petty trials and paltry complainings. 
But that is the very thing that this brave prophet 
did. He was sensitive to the worry of life. He 
illustrates the greatness and littleness of eminent 
men in his own peculiar fashion. " Let me not see 
my wretchedness," he exclaims to God, which, 
being turned into current phrase means, " I am 
worried to death." Moses had served the Hebrew 
brethren with singular fidelity and he had chosen 
" rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, 
than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." 
" By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath 



50 Courage and Comfort that Concern 

of the king ; for he endured as seeing him who is 
invisible." But the people fretted. They nour- 
ished their discontent. They gave way to unreason. 
"And when the people complained it displeased 
God." It was not that they did not have enough to 
eat and drink and wear. It was the kind of supply 
that irked them. They wanted better living. Al- 
though it was a strange journey which they were 
making, although the circumstances of the case 
were peculiar, they were dissatisfied and rebellious. 
The special matter that induced the assault on 
Moses as recorded in the chapter, was a longing for 
flesh food. So they assailed Moses with bitter com- 
plaining. It was not a vital matter. They could 
live quite comfortably on their present diet. But 
that did not serve their taste satisfactorily. They 
demanded another bill of fare. So when Moses 
went among the people and heard them cry like 
peevish children, he acted according to impulse, 
yielded to the vexation of the day, called on God to 
kill him so that he might evade the wretchedness 
that dominated his life. He did what history 
stamps as the popular thing to do : he worried. And 
his worry took the shape of an appeal to death. 
" Let me not see my wretchedness." With what 
patience, affection, wisdom, did God give answer to 
his querulous prayer. " And the Lord said unto 
Moses, is the Lord's hand waxed short?" And in 
the strength of this fresh revelation the prophet 
went forth to do the divine bidding. 



The Ministry of Trouble. 5 1 

We propose to point our inquisitiveness worry- 
ward. We want to inquire concerning the cause, the 
course, the cure of worry. And this incident in the 
career of Moses affords us the desired vantage 
ground. 

We put so much of worry into our life that 
definition is superfluous. It is a mental activity 
that generally confines itself to things small, dis- 
agreeable, uncertain or imaginary, as these things 
are supposed to bear upon one's future course and 
experience. Temperament has a hand in the thing. 
Some favored people are endowed with wonderful 
elasticity of nature. They cannot live sad lives. 
They are alwa3 T s shining. There seems such an 
adjustment of parts and qualities that nothing 
comes to the surface but genial words and blithe 
activities. But these natures are exceptional. The 
majority of people must look to something besides 
temperament if they make the days bright with 
good cheer. The swiftness of the times has inten- 
sified the pressure that bears upon the individual. 
This pressure a6ls energetically upon the tempera- 
ment. Morbid conditions are easily and speedily 
induced. Heredity becomes an important factor. 
We meet many people who sing the psalm of life 
in a dolorous minor key. And it is a psalm that 
gives little refreshment to the listening company, 
however much of warning and instruction it may 
distribute. Ill health may lend a hand. The nerves 
get out of order. Some member, some long-suffer- 



5 2 Courage and Comfort that Concern 

ing member of the physical system has a heated 
controversy with the other members. They get 
into a jangle and refuse to co-operate. The king 
cannot tarry unmoved in his palace while his 
people are waging internecine strife. He is related 
in such close way to the subjects of his kingdom 
that their strife has vital significance for him. The 
man that rules the petty sovereignty of the human 
frame cannot remain unmoved while one and 
another member yields to any kind of base or 
harmful activity. Such condition of forces serves 
to throw him off his balance, to undermine his 
mastery of self, to harass and hamper him in any 
happy living. 

Then circumstances have a share in worry. 
Some people are placed in life so that the years 
move along with the calm and the monotony of a 
great sluggish river. The storm does not seem to 
touch them. They have all the things that heart 
can desire. But such people can be reckoned on 
one's fingers. We deceive ourselves concerning 
them. Circumstances touch all men with vexatious 
touch. It is a matter of concealment in many cases- 
And yet it is true that while one life seems quite 
free from worrisome circumstances another life has 
superabundance. The mother who lives long days 
amid her large family of little children, finds her- 
self the creature of worry, how many, many hours. 
The children fret, the children quarrel, they fall, 
they tear their clothes, they lose their playthings, 



The Ministry of Trouble. 53 

they cultivate mischievous pranks, they get ill and 
cross, and disobedient. What a record of trivialities ! 
And how easily we can bear them at a distance and 
in some other family. But when it comes to one's 
own home, when the trifles multiply into a stormy 
host ; well it's not such a small matter and unim- 
portant matter after all. These things worry a per- 
son. " Oh, that I had wings like a dove, for then 
would I flyaway and be at rest." The psalmist had 
his hours of worry, and his words voice the cry of 
many a worn, wearied soul. Yes, circumstances 
have a great deal to do with the thing. They press 
the mind into an oversensitive state, and then they 
make occasion for the final demonstration. Moses 
bore up with robust courage and triumphant faith 
so long as the course of Israel was obstructed by 
the hatred and cruelty of Pharaoh, by the rough 
waters of the Red Sea, by the grim desolation of the 
Wilderness ; but when it came to the pettish whim- 
per of the people, when it came to a small matter 
of variegated diet, he succumbed. " Let me not see 
my wretchedness." He wanted to die because the 
people worried him. The circumstance was too 
much for his equilibrium. Now, when we yield to 
these things the result is inevitable. We give a 
very sombre interpretation to life. We form a habit 
of fret, and a good deal of our thought, experience, 
vision, finds explanation in this chronic state of 
soul. Every little annoyance is magnified into im- 
portance. It is just like the work which a certain 



54 Courage and Comfort that Concern 

tiny parasite did for one of the ships of Columbus 
when he coasted along the new land of Veragua. 
The parasite bored into the thick, tough hide of the 
ship until it was as porous as a piece of sponge, and 
the ship sank, a worthless wreck, to the bottom of the 
sea. And these petty' perplexities attach them- 
selves to the soul and pierce it through and through 
until it seems like a worthless wreck of its former 
self ; and then how many times there is sad collapse 
and inevitable ruin ! It is a miserable kind of life 
which one lives who never basks in the sunshine. 
It was a mournful day when the Aztec prisoners were 
drawn down into the mines and there compelled 
to delve in the shadows and darkness. It meant 
loss of strength and premature decrepitude and 
joyless living. And worry means the shutting out 
of sunshine. It means a mournful tarrying in the 
shadows. It means condemnation to dull, weary, 
bodeful living. It means forfeiture of strength and 
vitiation of character. " Let me not see my wretch- 
edness." So fretted Moses cries and turns toward 
the grave as toward a great and blessed relief. " I 
am worried to death," so our tried, vexed spirit cries, 
and we reach forth for the same relief that makes 
suggestion of its solacement. 

But we have had enough of this life condition. 
And the Lord said unto Moses, " Is the Lord's hand 
waxed short ?" and that is saying that commends 
itself to you and to me when we feel the pressure 
of worry. We observe then that life at the best has 



The Ministry of Trouble. 55 

a great deal in it that is adapted for purposes of 
worry. And there are some people who find morbid 
satisfaction in this fact-. They borrow trouble and 
they beg trouble, that they may worry over it. 
"Ah," says Mrs. Parrott, who was conscious of her 
inferiority in this respect., " there isn't many fami- 
lies as have had so many deaths as yours, Mrs. 
Higgins." It is a sorry prospect for a soul when the 
drift of daily experience is worryward. Tempera- 
ment, health, circumstances, they all favor the con- 
dition, but God calls a halt upon the soul. " Is the 
Lord's hand waxed short ? " Does your worry make 
any difference with event or transaction ? Is not 
God master of life, and does He not hold in thought 
the infinite details of your career ? This does not 
signify that our difficulties and harrassments which 
multiply day by day, are to be removed and avoided. 
The divine plan sometimes reveals itself in this way, 
but generally the divine plan takes the shape of ob- 
ligation on your part, to meet the trial and vexation 
and resolutely control it. Temperament and health 
and circumstance are largely under our manage- 
ment. Some of the greatest scholars that the world 
has ever known were men who had little natural 
aptitude for such pursuits. They longed for knowl- 
edge, but it was tedious, serious labor for them to 
acquire it. They mastered their defects, and their 
mastery gave its fruitage in the corresponding 
achievement. Some of the cheerfulest men that 
you find in the world have been men of gloomy tern- 



56 Courage and Comfort that Concern 

per and morbid tendency. They were compelled to 
put all effort, determination, skill, into just this 
simple conquest of natural inclination, and they 
gained as their guerdon a sunniness and hopeful- 
ness of character that testify to a very precious fel- 
lowship with God. We are to face these little things 
and press them into serviceableness. We are to 
make account of them. The old saw has it that you 
take care of the pennies and the pounds will take 
care of themselves. When we put the teaching into 
spiritual terms it means that you prove watchful 
and obedient concerning the petty and the trivial 
oppositions, and you will necessarily be drilled into 
deft and masterful dealing with large and supreme 
matters. It is the law of faithfulness which, assert- 
ing itself in that which is least as a matter of neces- 
sity, asserts itself in that which is greatest. 

Water is a cruel, relentless master. When it 
rushes through the canyons after the storm has 
deluged the mountain, it doesn't tarry upon the 
pleasure of the traveler — it doesn't favor him with 
anything of kindness. With swift, strong grasp it 
bears him down to death and hurries along its 
tumultuous coursings. But the same force has fine 
possibilities. The water itself may be used for pur- 
poses of irrigation — while the force that is concealed 
in the swift descending stream may be transferred 
into looms and wheels, and manufactured products. 
And steam is a harsh and savage master. When it 
bursts forth from its imprisonment it scalds and 



The Ministry of Trouble. 5 7 

ruins, and destroys with indescribable speed and 
efficiency. But when we lead this force into harness 
and guide this force with strong bits, steam serves 
us with a devotedness and a generosity that are 
unparalleled. 

What we call temper — all the things which shape 
themselves into worry — represent a mighty force. 
And the forces which show themselves as anxiety 
and heedful anticipation, must be transformed into 
trust, confidence, resignation, praise. And the Lord 
said unto Moses, " Is the Lord's hand waxed short ?" 
The thought or teaching is this : God will stand 
just as close to us when the petty trial comes as 
when the great trial approaches us. And expe- 
rience emphasizes the need just as sternly on the 
one occasion as on the other. The fact of worry is 
largely explained in a serious neglect of God's help. 
Like proud, conceited children, we propose to 
" shift for ourselves" in the small concerns. When 
some great need presses us we will take counsel 
with God and draw upon Him for help. But counsel 
is just as much a necessity in the one case as in the 
other : and help has its part to play with both expe- 
riences. It is only a difference of degree. The 
same kind of raw material is used in making the 
small diamond as in making the Kohinoor. It 
requires a larger amount of the raw material to 
make the Kohinoor — that is the thing that differ- 
ences it from the pure small gems that glitter upon 
our fingers. It requires the same kind of raw 

D 



5 8 Courage and Comfort that Concern 

material to make a small noble deed as it does a 
large noble deed. It requires the same kind of 
gracious resistance to convert a petty temptation 
into a soul victory as it does to shape the mighty 
onset into a soul victory. It is a matter of degree, 
and the Lord's hand is not shortened, that He will 
refuse you if you ask for help when you are enticed 
into trivial meannesses and "worrisome activities as 
well as when you meet the heavier attacks of great 
troubles. The truth that Scripture tries to put into 
the mind is this : that the Lord is a very present 
Help and there is no limitation touching the precise 
size and relative importance of the various troubles 
incident to our life. "My grace is sufficient for 
thee." I take it that Christ meant we could learn 
to bear ourselves with serenity and hopefulness 
during the moment of trifling insult and personal 
pique as well as during the hour of heavy bereave- 
ment and sorrowful defeat. 

We make another advance when we consider that 
the Master works with design through the little 
troubles as well as through the great ones. When 
some marked change has £>een wrought in our life 
by events that were important, and when we have 
earnestly endeavored to adjust ourselves to these 
events and the issue has proved significant, we 
believe that God was guiding and determining for 
us. We rest in his providence. Infinite comfort 
possesses our soul. But God wants to use the small 
occurrences of life and the unimportant trials for 



The Ministry of Trouble. 59 

the same purpose. Every leaf bears relation to the 
perfected rose. Every experience bears relation to 
the perfected spirit. Nothing comes amiss in life 
so long as we give God free activity in our living. 
It is when we rebel or play truant or refuse to heed, 
that things go amiss. The jangle of personal life 
reverts to disobedience and carelessness and unbe- 
lief. The thing that frets a person must be used as 
a thing that urges him into such gracious opposi- 
tion that the person will not fret. The thing that 
wears the person into roughness of temper is the 
very thing that he must use with God's help in the 
training of his temper, so that he shall be calm and 
Christ-like. 

This leads to the final statement. It is the petty 
affair, the small trial, the insignificant friction of 
life, that does the fine work of character making. 
Fine qualities require fine tools. Raphael cannot 
paint the Transfiguration with a great coarse brush 
and Phidais cannot carve his goddess with a mas- 
sive chisel. Fine work demands fine instruments. 
The large mallet and the broad chisel take away the 
masses of stone ; but the small instruments are 
essential to the delicate task. These things of life 
that make men worry are the small tools that bear 
down upon the manhood and the womanhood with 
keenest persistency. They are doing the fine work 
for the soul. Great deeds and conspicuous labors 
bring into prominence the great traits of character. 
Trivial deeds and inconspicuous victories witness 



60 Courage and Comfort that Concern 

to a matchless refinement and beauteousness of 
character. God would use the crooked impulse and 
vexatious motive, and all the things that urge us 
into worry, just as the artist uses tiny bristles and 
neutral tints. These are the agencies which work 
grace and fineness in the spirit. 

The cathedral of Cologne has its small, obscure 
parts wrought into the same beauty and perfeclness 
as the large and dominant features of the structure. 
It signifies a thoroughness, an exquisiteness of finish 
that is rich in precious suggestion. And that is the 
way God tries to deal with us. He plans to work us 
into that shapeliness of soul which is described in 
Jesus Christ. We are to take the forces of worry 
and give God opportunity to use them in the making 
of our character. He will work in us and through 
us. And this illustrates the divine method of teach- 
ing the world and exalting the spirit. 



TRIBULATION. 



TRIBULATION. 

"In the world ye have tribulation," — John xvi : 33. 

That is a fact. The saying is one whose truth is 
so patent that we can afford to omit the proof. " In 
the world ye have tribulation." It is written in 
furrowed faces, in bent forms, in sunken eyes, in 
silvered locks. It is chanted in the monotonous 
minor of sickness, decay, separation, death. It is 
proclaimed in tragic tone and gesture by calamity, 
distress, iniquity, crime. "In the world ye have 
tribulation." In respect, to other people, unbelieving 
people, godless people, we call it by another name, 
for it is another thing. Ye, the souls that fellow- 
ship with Christ, have tribulation. And you have 
it because you need it. You have it because with 
the present order of things you could not get along 
without it. Just how we are to interpret tribula- 
tion is the object of our inquiry. 

The word comes from the Latin fri&u/um, which 
means a roller, the threshing instrument of the 
Roman husbandman. Tribulation signifies an act 
of separation — a threshing. When Christianized 
the word came to have a nobler meaning, even " the 
separating in man of whatever in him was light, 
trivial and poor from the solid and the true," — the 
threshing of the spiritual man. So tribulation 



64 Courage and Comfort that Concern 

evolves a meaning that makes it synonymous with 
anguish, affliction, sorrow. And the part that these 
factors take in human life on earth affords us oppor- 
tunity to observe the means of moral growth and 
development. 

There is a great deal in human nature that must 
be threshed out of it. Tribulation is a process of 
coercion. It is help in the line of fruitful har- 
vests if one can keep the weeds under firm con- 
trol. A thrifty vice will sap all the vitality that is 
required to make a robust virtue. Some people put 
so much strength into self-conceit, that they show 
little vigor in practical industry or serious applica- 
tion. Tribulation takes them in hand. How are 
the mighty fallen ! One lively hour of thorough 
threshing will sometimes do more for a soul than 
long years of subtle argument and importunate en- 
treaty. An infidel miner, proud in his own con- 
ceit, was tugging away at his task in an English 
mine. Suddenly one of the kobs of coal crashed 
down the shaft and felled the poor miner to the 
floor. But he was conscious of his hurt and his 
peril, and so he cried with great fury of zeal, " God 
have mercy on me." One of his comrades, a devout 
soul, was quick to appreciate the situation. "Ah," 
said he, "there's nothing like kobs of coal for 
knocking the infidelity out of a man." Tribulation 
in the shape of kobs of coal, or shipwreck, or pain- 
ful illness, threshes many a soul so that life has 
nobler meaning and richer promise. 



The Ministry of Trouble. 65 

What variety of tendencies manifest themselves 
in the heart of your child. And you must discrim- 
inate between the good and the bad. And then you 
must work to repress the bad and foster the 
good. The tribulations of childhood are real and 
rough, severe and taxing. But we now see the 
blessedness of them. How many times did our 
parents punish us for disobediences — those rebel- 
lious tendencies of our heart were powerful — they 
sometimes attained the mastery. But the tribula- 
tions ordained by our loving guardians did some 
precious work of restraint and correction, and we 
can see that there was a certain winnowing in our 
life that issued in a purer and stronger personality. 
This is parallel with the way of God. When we 
outgrow the garments of childhood we still find our 
souls so small that they have to wear clothes of 
about the same size. God is obliged to treat us in 
very much the same way as we, through love, are 
obliged to treat our children. Our soul growth 
doesn't keep pace with our body growth. So we 
have tribulation in the world. 

We know well that when people make effort to 
live clean, Christian lives they are subjected to the 
assaults of what is termed the world — ungodly 
society. You cannot serve two masters. Light 
and darkness cannot abide each other's company. 
There is no friendship between righteousness 
and iniquity. So we can truthfully say that tribu- 
lation (as we apply the word to Christ's people) 



66 Courage and Comfort that Concern 

means service in the employ of virtue. It tests a 
man's honesty and genuineness. The early church 
was greatly blessed in persecution. Dishonest and 
insincere men were driven from its shelter. And 
troubles operate in the same way. They make a 
man show his metal. One will throw off his mask 
if it has got him into peril. The natural man will 
assert himself with all speed and strength. In this 
way tribulation sometimes determines the quality 
of a man's faith. If I am not comforted, supported, 
encouraged as I suffer, it seems a correct conclusion 
that my faith is not of the finest quality. Tribula- 
tion is strenuous in its faith requirements. "Though 
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, 
I will fear no evil." That is the saying of sterling 
faith. So tribulation sometimes leads us down into 
the shadowy valley for the very purpose of putting 
test to this condition of heart. If we be genuine 
in our life — if we prove true to our professions — 
such experiences serve to strengthen the spiritual 
stamina. Tribulation inducts one into nobler living. 
Life is broadened, deepened, solidified, intensified by 
such operations. This seems to be the meaning of 
those words in Acts xiv: 22, "We must through 
much tribulation enter into the kingdom of heaven." 
Our whole earth life, we see, is given over to moral 
tests. The spirit is to be tutored into patience, 
long-suffering, kindness, charity, gentleness, hope 
by the sombre work of tribulation. 



The Ministry of Trouble. 6j 

But if we look at this matter from another point 
of view we shall find a larger significance in it. 
Tribulation is a thorough, persistent, sagacious and 
accomplished instructor. Shakespeare says that all 
the world's a stage and we are actors on it : and 
that sounds well. But all the world's a school and 
we are pupils in it. Trouble is one of the teachers. 
The majority of people are dull when it comes to 
the realm of morals. They read the law, they 
recite with variations the precepts that grow out of 
the moral law : and then they go like wilful chil- 
dren and do as they please. It isn't enough for 
such people, for most people, that they receive oral 
or written instructions concerning these things. So 
God has made this world school on the kindergarten 
plan. Obje6l teaching has been in vogue since 
Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden of 
Eden — indeed before that sad expulsion — for Satan 
himself made use of this admirable system when he 
taught two people the knowledge of good and evil, 
by the use of an apple. 

You remember how Paul says, " we glory in tribu- 
lation." That is a proper thing to say. We glory 
in a fine teacher. The having such a teacher, is an 
earnest of good attainments and thorough culture. 
" I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulations," 
writes the apostle, and one does not eye the words 
dubiously when one observes that the schooling 
which a man gets while studying under tribulation 
has in it such potency of things good and true. 



68 Courage and Comfort that Concern 

The great Teacher looks down into our life and 
finds that we are intensely selfish. Now there is 
only one convenient way to get that selfishness out 
of the heart. The Master says, " I will put this 
heart under the schooling of tribulation." So 
this subordinate teacher begins the task. The 
man loses some measure of his prosperity. He is 
prostrated upon a bed of illness. He is thrust out 
of his conspicuous position. He sees his adored 
child pine away with disease. His heart is almost 
broken with trouble. He passes through various 
states of anger, bitterness, despair. Then he pays 
some heed to the voices that whisper to his soul. 
He begins to think that he is not of great import- 
ance to the world — that the things of life move 
along with method and regularity without even his 
touch or impulse — that it is not the chief end of 
living — this having everybody minister to him. The 
man finds under the serious, persevering instructions 
of tribulation that he is a mean, selfish person, and 
that such meanness and selfishness are. hateful in 
sight of men and accursed in sight of God. It 
teaches in matter-of-facl: way, with such repetition 
of the lesson, with such reiterated illustration 
of the lesson, that one cannot evade or escape for 
long, the assigned task. No doubt many of us tarry 
under such instructions needlessly. Like restive, 
inattentive little pupils, we refuse to learn, and so 
the teacher keeps us in the school and we drag out 
weary hours of rebellious study. " In the world ye 



The Ministry of Trouble. 69 

have tribulation." But the instructions of this 
teacher are not given in any haphazard way. There 
is what might be called a curriculum of troubles. 
We are taking a full course. The petty trials of 
childhood, the vexations of youth, the reverses of 
manhood, the disappointments of maturity, the in- 
firmities of age, and running all through these 
experiences, the incidental griefs, pains, calamities, 
these make up the curriculum of the tribulation 
School. You see that the great Father is training 
us for a career. That is why you send your 
songful child to the conservatory of Milan, you 
are training her for a career. There are marvel- 
lous possibilities in her voice. So you bind her 
down to humdrum, burdensome living. She keeps 
her voice in perpetual exercise ; she studies the 
masters ; she has all the imperfections and infirmi- 
ties threshed out of her, (so far as the Milan 
conservatory can do such threshing.) This is 
teaching in another sphere or realm. And it pays. 
Your child, now a mature woman, begins her career. 
You sit in the great hall — one heart in the midst of 
thousands — and you hear the song that is interpreted 
by your child's voice. Its sweetness, pathos, com- 
pass, power, thrill every heart and move the multi- 
tude with nameless emotion. In joy, in worth, and in 
work, it has paid. And so the great Father is train- 
ing us for a career. He»sends us to the appointed 
school. " Oh what powers lie hidden in these 
souls," he says, " I must prepare them for a great 



7o Courage and Comfort that Concern 

career." In the world ye have tribulation. Liv- 
ing seems burdensome, sometimes ; this constant 
exercise of small, weak graces, the ceaseless strug- 
gle with infirmities and imperfections, the earnest 
counsel of daily troubles — but it pays — this tribula- 
tion pays. It is preparing us for a great career ; 
the hidden powers shall reveal themselves ; the 
songful spirit shall, in the end make its exquisite 
music. You have seen during the years of your 
training, some brave, tranquil men whose lives 
were beautifully melodious. They were saints who 
had been graduated from the School of tribulation. 
They were waiting to begin the new career in that 
larger life-named heaven. 

Bearing these definitions in mind, we observe that 
tribulation is one of the necessary factors in the 
perfect unfolding of the man. It will do for the 
growing personality what the rough storm will do 
for the growing plant and tree — refresh, invigorate, 
strengthen, nourish. People make great mistakes 
in respect to the object of living. The gratification 
of appetite, the free play of ambition, the pursuit 
of happiness — these are the things that deceive us. 
And these things reduce life to an experience of 
petty, sterile selfishness. Tribulation comes to set 
things "to rights." "Whom the Lord loveth He 
chasteneth." Love never permits her children to 
have their own reckless, wilful way through the 
world. The thorn in the flesh is decreed so that 
you shall be brought to your senses. 



The Ministry of Trouble. 7 1 

There is no malice or hatred in such visitation. 
Tribulation keeps saying to men, the primary ob- 
ject of living is not simple enjoyment of the world. 
There are large measures of legitimate pleasure 
and felicity in this variegated world career, but 
these things are secondary. We are put into the 
world to use it. It is like a great store house of 
tools and instruments. We are to learn the various 
uses of things, to practice certain activities, and so 
work out our own salvation. We are to equip our- 
selves for the exercises of the other world, and 
tribulation serves persistently in the way of soul 
equipment. 

It makes infinite difference whether we take a 
short view or a long view of life. If our days are 
simply seventy years and all ends, we must bustle 
about our little court, trying to make the most of 
our transient living. But tribulation bids us take 
the long view of life. We tarry here for brief 
season that we may fit ourselves for the endless 
career. We gain here what heaven itself cannot 
give us — a tried, toughened, personal worth. 

Alfieri in Ferrara looking at the precious MSS. 
of Ariosto, checked with innumerable corrections, 
evidencing the writer's industry, wrote "Alfieri 
beholds and venerates." We observe the faithful, 
forceful way in which tribulation does its noble 
task in the lives of Christian men. We also say 
"we behold and venerate." But there is a richer 
saying, which I urge you to use as voicing a nobler 



7 2 Courage and Comfort that Concern 

sentiment : " We also glory in tribulation, knowing 
that tribulation worketh patience ; patience, exper- 
ience, and experience, hope ; and hope maketh not 
ashamed." 



SUFFERING 



SUFFERING. 

"For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God 
-endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye 
be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently ? but if, when 
ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable 
with God." — I. Pet. ii : 19 and 20. 

Sometimes a precious truth will express itself 
in the life of a man and the man fails to measure 
its importance and meaning. Just as sunshine uses 
air as a medium of service, so the truthshine may- 
use the unconscious man. But the things that 
touch us with supreme touch generally are the 
things that come to us through personal interpreta- 
tion and through personal illustration. All talk 
about divine love is vague and indistinct until we 
meet love in Jesus Christ. God so loved the world 
that He gave His son. The cross becomes the 
everlasting symbol of the God love ; and when we 
name many subordinate truths, it is only when we 
meet them incarnated that their worthiness and their 
beauty and their glory are emphasized. A saying 
multiplies its significance many fold when it is 
uttered under the impulse of deep personal knowl- 
edge. This explains in some measure the rough- 
ness and perilousness of the Apostles' journey- 
ings. Any healthful, inspiring, convictive state- 
ment concerning spiritual matters, necessitated 



J 6 Courage and Comfort that Concern 

some notable share in such experience as was to be 
phrased into a truth statement. Truth is truth. 
But there seems to be the demand on the part of 
this poor human nature, that truth must have a 
man behind it to give it its mighty f orcefulness and 
make it do its great ordained mission. So when 
one man says a thing we make little account of it. 
But when some other man says the same thing we 
make large account of it. It is the personal factor 
that sends the truth home to the soul. The Bible 
deals in deeds and men. It does not run its 
teaching into abstract forms to any large degree. 
It seeks to make its instruction concrete. It folds 
lesson after lesson within the personality of 
Moses, David, Judas, Felix, Peter and the host of 
Bible men and women. As we listen to these men 
we observe that they communicate truth through 
the life they live — we observe that revelation itself 
is so tinged and toned by the inspired writers that 
it is a matter of endless discussion to discriminate 
the human from the divine. But what difference 
does it make to the learner so long as he seeks the 
truth and finds the truth and lives the truth ? 

Now, the narrative of Peter's life is brightened 
and darkened by an experience that was singularly 
varied. The counsel which he pushes into our 
heart in these text words, is counsel and com- 
fort whose merit had been tested in his own 
career. He could talk therefore with directness 
and precision. It does not count much for a man 



The Ministry of Trouble. 77 

who is rich and strong and prosperous to say to 
the poor man who languishes in illness and penury, 
"Now be serene and contented, dear man. Don't 
worry or complain. This is your lot. God knows 
best." Such language does not carry a very large 
burden of comfort and helpfulness. It is when a 
man puts himself into sympathy with the sufferer 
— it is when the man suffers with the sufferer, (by 
sacrifice or kindred experience,) that such messages 
carry helpfulness and solacement. Now these words 
of our text had a man behind them. He knew the 
significance of his message. It was braced and 
shaped and vitalized by Peter's personality. The 
truth was lively with the robust manhood of Peter. 
You hold this doctrine of dutiful submission in 
great honor as you see it lived by a man of impetu- 
ous spirit, zealous nature, indomitable will, un- 
quenchable hope. It is this sort of a man, (not a 
weak, dubious, effeminate, coward creature,) who 
insists that "it is thankworthy, if a man for con- 
science toward God endure grief, suffering wrong- 
fully. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted 
for your faults, ye shall take it patiently ? but if, when 
ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, 
this is acceptable with God." 

In these words Peter tells us what should be the 
attitude of the soul toward men who harass 
and trammel the man in his daily service. Its 
primary application was made to that class of 
people who were subject to the bondage of earthly 



78 Courage and Comfort that Concern 

masters. But its secondary application touches 
any heart that tries to do right in the world 
and meets censure, ■ opposition, scorn in such 
doing. You see then that Peter has good help for 
us. He seeks to arm us with grace against the in- 
evitable conflicts that are incident to every godly 
life that shall be lived on earth. It isn't any virtue 
to take a scourging' gracefully when we deserve it. 
The scourging evidences our lack of virtue. And 
yet it isn't every man who merits punishment that 
does take it resignedly. The majority of us mani- 
fest a purpose to whine or kick, or take vengeance. 
Now, says Peter, (and Peter simply varies the 
Christ exposition on this point,) this is not only 
mean and unchristian, but our keeping still and 
taking chastisement isn't a thing worth praising. 

There is no virtue in such a line of conduct.. It 
is when ye do well and suffer for it and take it 
patiently that you show an acceptable spirit to God. 
" For even hereunto were ye called," continues 
Peter ; " because Christ also suffered for us, leaving 
us an example, that ye should follow his steps ; who 
did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth : 
who, when he was reviled, reviled not again ; when 
he suffered, he threatened not ; but committed him- 
self to Him that judgeth righteously." O Thou Son 
of God, despised and rejected of men; a man of 
sorrows and acquainted with grief ; Thou who wast 
wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our 
iniquities ; impart unto us Thine own kingly spirit, 
that we may endure as seeing Him who is invisible! 



The Ministry of Trouble. 79 

To do well and suffer for it, and then to take the 
suffering patiently, that is acceptable to God. 
There are three phases to the experience that is 
outlined in Peter's words. First comes the well- 
doing. There must be no uncertainty in respect to 
that matter. It will prove vain to pursue a course 
of self-deception and try to make one's self think 
that ill-doing is well-doing. It is not enough to say 
that " happy is that man which condemneth not him- 
self in that which he alloweth." The thing is 
put in positive, definite form. It is well-doing as 
measured by the thought of God. Pseudo-martyr- 
dom does not count. It is the genuine spirit of good, 
true work that is signified by the phrase. 

The second phase of the experience is suffering 
for righteous conduct. So long as we hold acquaint- 
anceship with the world, the flesh and the Devil, 
we shall find steady business in the shape of trouble. 
All the harassments and conflicts of life do not 
come as penalty for our disobedience or rebellion. 
A true man is frequent vicar. To accomplish any- 
thing large and valuable in behalf of men, we are 
compelled to invest considerable soul. That means 
suffering, sacrifice, opposition, disturbance. We 
must learn that such thing is part of the price 
which we pay for the spiritual achievement. And 
when we learn this fact we grasp with firm hand 
the third phase of the experience — the patience of 
the thing. It is a part of the divine thought that we 



80 Courage and Comfort that Concern 

suffer patiently. Jesus held that attitude toward 
persecution. And the disciple is not above his 
Master. When we put our share of work into clear, 
accurate terms, we shall see that patient endurance 
is a frequent term with manifold relations. 

All of which exposition words lead us to inquire 
wherein consists the acceptableness of such course 
to God. " To do well and suffer for it and take it 
patiently, is acceptable with God." This is pointing 
in the direction of spiritual enlargement. How 
easily the words which state this teaching flow 
from our lips ! But it is not such an easy matter to 
explain these words through personal dealing. 

The acceptableness of this spirit is seen in the fact 
that it signifies a training into forbearance. Practic- 
ing this text is a kind of message to God that we 
are marching along the line of personal conquest. 
When the child has mastered his task he receives 
good impulse for the coming hour. His nature a6ls 
under the healthful stimulation of success. He is 
well toned for further effort. So the soul that 
learns to take pain patiently — the pain that comes 
from rough encounters in behalf of right — is learn- 
ing to look with generous forbearance upon the 
faults and infirmities of our fellow-men. The 
noble attitude for the soul to take when assaulted 
by the world, is illustrated by our Saviour. Even 
when the rabble taunted Him as He wore away the 
anguishful hours upon the cross, He spake with infi- 
nite tone of acquiescence and compassion, " Father, 



The Ministry of Trouble. 81 

forgive them, for they know not what they do." 
This is molding the lower nature into such form 
that it shall fit the higher nature and give it the 
noblest interpretation. This is putting to shame 
the base tendencies of the heart and impressing 
their force into the service of God. 

The acceptableness of this soul attitude is seen in 
the fact that it develops a peculiar courage. It 
sometimes requires more strength to refrain from 
doing a thing than is required for the doing of the 
thing. Washington founding the Republic is not 
so great as Washington declining the royal crown. 
The greatness of men is often tested by their not 
doing, and the courage which enables a man to say 
no and remain quiet when his wishes, and his pas- 
sions, and his comrades urge him to say yes and 
push him into doing, is courage of finer quality and 
larger merit than courage which issues in world 
conquest. That is a fine sentiment which we read 
in Prov. xvi: 32. : ' He that is slow to anger is better 
than the mighty : and he that ruleth his spirit than 
he that taketh a city." And it makes unforgetable 
impression when illustrated in Christian character. 
The courage that is turned towards one's self and 
made to resist pride, hatred, viciousness, madness, 
is courage of superb type — courage that stamps the 
soul as vigorous servant of God. That is the kind 
of courage fostered by our text. If you want to 
know its merit and beauty apply it to the affairs of 
life that demand forbearance, magnanimity, for- 
giveness. 



82 Courage and Comfort that Concern 

The acceptableness of this attitude of the soul is 
seen in the fact that it encourages faith. We are in- 
structed with marked particularity in the Bible that 
" vengeance is mine, I will repay saith the Lord." 
That is instruction that does not suit the pugnacious 
spirit of the natural man. We insist on present con- 
dign punishment, and as the sure way of enforcing 
such punishment w'e form a kind of lynch-law habit 
and take the administration of justice into our own 
hands. We understand this matter thoroughly 
when we take the trouble to investigate. The fact 
is we are trying to do God's business on our own re- 
sponsibility and in our own chosen way. When 
God wants us to punish men for the injuries which 
they have inflicted upon us, He will put us in law- 
ful position for the task and give us legitimate 
weapons to inflict the chastisement. But we are 
blind with passion and we fear the escape of the 
culprit, and so we break the law ourselves and vent 
the strength of our madness upon the offender. As 
if God did not see men ; as if God did not measure 
every transaction ; as if God did not have supreme 
control of all agencies and activities ; as if God did 
not purpose a discreet course and shape His provi- 
dences with infinite wisdom. " Oh, ye of little 
faith." It is a discipline of faith — this living the 
teaching framed in our text. It is a masterful 
method of courting faith into bud, and bloom, and 
fruitage. Take God at His word. Leave the matter 
of castigation to Him. Do well and suffer for it,. 



The Ministry of Trouble. 83 

and bear it patiently, and bide the time of the 
Omnipotent. Faith pushes its way into the sun- 
shine ; the years bring the testimonies as to right 
or wrong. Faith bursts into precious blossom ; the 
years continue their work of sifting. Faith yields 
its perfect fruitage. The years finish the task of 
of righteous judgment. The spirit of the text 
cherishes a faith that waxes stronger and stronger 
until we learn personally to leave all complex, puz- 
zling things, all dark, inexplicable occurrences to 
the decision and adjustment of the great Father. 

The acceptableness of this attitude of the soul is 
seen in the fact that it takes us along the way that 
ends in subjection to God. A man begins to feel 
his ignorance, weakness, insignificance, simpleness. 
He wants to subject himself to a leader that is 
strong, wise, righteous, divine. Self-mastery and 
Christ-mastery run into the same channel. " When 
I am weak then am I strong." That paradox ex- 
presses a condition of soul that has infinite potency. 
As we put ourselves under the leadership of Jesus, as 
we obey His words, and reveal His mind, and do His 
works, and share His spirit, we grow away from 
annoyance, anxiety, hatred, wrong. To do well 
and suffer for it and bear the suffering patiently, is 
most precious training into God subjection. The 
very force of soul that is put into the denial and 
restraint, is force of soul that wins the Master's 
support, and solace. " The Lord reigns." Mark 
that everlasting message ! It is vain for men to 



84 Courage and Comfort that Concern 

meddle with the plans and tasks of God. When 
the Master wants our help, when the Master requires 
our agency, He will voice His will, not through our 
passions and impulses, but through conscience, rea- 
son, circumstance, instruction. 

We see then that the method recommended by 
this text constrains the soul- into greatness. This 
is acceptable with God that a man pursue such 
course and phrase such conduct, that he shall rise 
into moral greatness. We cannot dictate the terms 
of our living. We cannot push vice, crime, sin, out 
of the world. It is not for us to pronounce upon 
many things that wear us and afflict us, and scourge 
us. But this we learn, that any thought or feeling 
of bitterness, hatred, cursing, malice, vengeance, 
will vitiate the soul and darken the years. No man 
can afford to harbor aught against his fellows. 
The injury reverts to one's self. To do well and 
suffer for it, and bear it patiently, that is acceptable 
with God. It is acceptable with God because it is 
Christ-like. It marks the Master's way of dealing 
with men. It leaves judgment and penalty with 
the All-Wise. But it is acceptable with God for 
another reason. It leads the soul into forbearance, 
courage, faith, submission, and so gives God a 
precious harvest in the autumn of our years. 

Friends, " do well ; and if you suffer for it, bear 
it patiently ; for this is acceptable with God." May 
this noble doctrine push its way into your life ! 
May it impart virtue to your career of trial ! And 



The Ministry of Trouble. 85 

may the God of love sanctify the things of daily 
experience, to the end that you attain the symmetry 
of perfect Christian manhood. 



DISCIPLINE. 



DISCIPLINE. 

' ' I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but 
that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." — John xvii: 15. 

This intercessory prayer of Christ was the favor- 
ite reading of John Knox. It has proved sweet- 
est and most nourishing pasturage to the great flock 
of the Good Shepherd. The verse which we choose 
for our study centers its immediate significance in 
the apostles. " I pray not that thou shouldest take 
them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep 
them from the evil." The work of founding the 
church was to make its beginnings at the hands of 
these same apostles. This work required their 
personal ministry. They could not do it were they 
taken with Christ into the heaven land ; neither 
could they do it were they retired into the desert 
in the role of recluse or ascetic. Christ therefore 
supplicates the Father that He fit them for such 
service; that He train them into the destined career; 
that He encompass them with safeguards, and when 
the Master has proceeded in his prayer he enlarges 
his petitions so that they gather into their mean- 
ing all that believe upon His name. " Neither pray 
I for these alone, but for them also which shall be- 
lieve on me through their word." The ultimate 
sweep of the prayer includes the illimitable com- 
pany of Christian men and women. 

F 



go Courage and Comfort that Concern 

Now, this prayer teaches us many precious truths 
concerning the divine procedure. The great truth 
that is voiced by our text has to do with certain 
phases of discipline. " I pray not that thou 
shouldest take them out of the world, but that 
thou shouldest keep them from the evil" (of the 
world). 

We naturally suppose that if any prayer ever re- 
ceives full triumphant answer it will be the prayer 
of Jesus. For we are sure that his prayer parallels 
the will of God, and that is equivalent to saying 
that it will be transacted to the very letter. So we 
begin our study with the serene assurance that 
when we measure the meaning of Christ's petition, 
we shall face the rich and satisfactory response. 
The world, as the Master uses the word, stands for 
this present, narrow, trammeled, checkered rela- 
tion. It isn't nature that is signified ; it isn't mind 
that is signified. But it is nature and mind as they 
are related to a heart condition. " The heart is de- 
ceitful above all things and desperately wicked." 
The self-determination of man has revealed itself 
in changes which issue in disturbance, separation, 
ruin. Matter and mind are touched with the 
curse of sin. The world means that time realm 
which is conditioned by this particular part of 
creation and that particular lapse from virtue, and 
Christ does not propose that we be taken prema- 
turely from out this environment of fret, battle, 
sin, wickedness. 



The Ministry of Trouble. 91 

You will observe that a good many of our prayers 
run contrary to this petition of Christ. We often 
ask with no small vehemence of spirit that God 
shall remove us from present surroundings, or that 
he shall dispense with our present surroundings. 
It does not seem to us that we can bear the things 
that are desolating our life and stealing our com- 
fort and happiness. So we pray that God may 
literally take us out of the world. " I want to die," 
"I want to die," and the cry is wrung from our soul 
by the bitterness and agony of our affliction. Or 
we pray that God may, as it were, take us out of the 
world, remove us to more congenial and inspiring 
associations, crush the forms and individuals and 
activities that antagonize our soul. That is human 
nature — unsanclified human nature. It just thinks 
of self, prays for self and orders for self, and in 
thought gives God's plan and the right plan the 
" go-by " in so far as such a thing is possible. Christ 
teaches us the folly and the futility of such petition. 

Our doctrine of prayer needs radical change. 
It is grounded in error, the doctrine of prayer 
which many of us hold ; it is fostered by mis- 
conceptions, and we get very small comfort and 
encouragement through such prayer. The ask- 
ing of favors is the prevalent interpretation of 
prayer. So when a man gets into what he calls 
a tight place he prays. I knew two boys who were 
overtaken by a storm as they fished on the broad 
bay. They were two miles from shore. Their little 



92 Courage and Comfort that Concern 

boat was like a cockle shell when the winds and 
waves beat furiously against them. In their zeal 
and terror they broke one oar and the other was 
snatched from their grasp by a great, boisterous 
wave. And then it seemed all vain. They thought 
they were lost. But there was a last resort. They 
went to praying, and they prayed with such agony 
of spirit that their Very bodies sweat great drops 
of sweat. Prayer was the last resort. They were 
in direful extremity. They prayed for rescue. 
Well, they were rescued. They are living to-day, 
and I doubt if they have made any great advance 
in their conceptions of the privilege and office of 
prayer. How different the spirit of a famous Chris- 
tian woman who was traveling down the Rhine when 
the boat was suddenly beset by a storm. It did not 
seem possible that they could out-ride the treacher- 
ous gale, and she prayed. But it wasn't any selfish 
petition for mere life. Her face shone with faith, 
peace, love, hope. She calmed her associate pas- 
sengers. Her prayer was vital with assurance. 
She felt God's presence. She was not alarmed. 
She chose neither life nor death. She sought simply 
the will of her Master. That was petition phrased 
in loyal accord with this prayer of Christ. It was 
conformity to the mind and heart of God that was 
pleaded. The mere texture of externalities and 
circumstances was matter of secondary importance. 
"I pray not that they may be taken out of the 
world." Their place is in the world. They not only 



The Ministry of Trouble. 93 

have a work to do, but they have a life to life. " I 
pray that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." 
This divine system of discipline finds sugges- 
tive analogy in our experience with the chil- 
dren. We do not expect to put our children out 
of harm's way by isolating them from temptation 
and immuring them in solitary places. They must 
meet the ills and trials and vices and sorrows that 
are incident to the world. So we school them into 
resistance of these things — making some beginning 
in the very first days of their career. We cannot 
always have them clinging to us for support. We 
want them to have a certain independency that is 
part of manhood. It seems very hard that we are 
compelled to separate them from us and trust them 
to the rough usage of men. And they will suffer 
many things ere they attain that mastery which 
makes them attractive to men and competent for 
affairs ; nevertheless it is for their good that we 
subject them to such discipline. Some of us remem- 
ber the time when we were compelled to leave the 
old home and bind us down to the routine of 
school. I remember such an youth. He was 
put in preparatory school when he was fifteen 
years of age. He loved home. He had always 
been a home boy. But it was time that he 
fit for college and for life. So he was enrolled with 
some three hundred pupils, in a great school. 
Words are poorest kind of pigments when you use 
them to paint that boy's homesickness. His suffering 



94 Courage and Comfort that Concern 

was terrible. And everybody pitied him. (That 
may have been one of the worst features of the 
case.) The boys pitied him ; the teachers pitied 
him ; the servants pitied him. He would not eat. 
He could not study. And I have seen some of the 
letters that that boy wrote to his parents. What 
letters ! I recall the.fact that I advised his parents 
to burn them. These letters were the most pathetic 
appeals ; and they troubled the parents. But they 
loved their boy too much to be moved into such an 
indiscretion as that of yielding to his prayer. They 
made him stay and defy his homesickness. And it 
were needless to say that he blessed them a 
thousand times in later years that they were 
firm and loyal in their purpose. The boy needed 
the discipline that carried so much misery with it. 
It was an essential factor in his success. And the 
later years revealed the righteousness, the wisdom, 
the love that insisted upon the course. Now that 
outlines the Heavenly Father's procedure with His 
children when they find themselves in very " trying 
circumstances." He does not want to make them 
suffer. No parent likes to make a child suffer. In 
truth the parent sometimes suffers just as much 
or a good deal more than the child. (And do we 
not see God in Christ taking to Himself our sins 
and receiving wounds for our transgressions ?) But 
the parent sees the necessity of discipline and the 
discipline is decreed. But we people are just 
like the children. " Don't make me do this thing ; 



The Ministry of Trouble. 95 

please don't send me to this place ! " That is the 
way the child pleads. And that is the very spirit 
of our earnest prayer in the ear of God. " Don't 
compel me to pursue such a course ! Take me away 
from this circumstance ! Don't send me here or there ! 
(as the case may be). I can't stand it ! " So we dic- 
tate to God and beseech Him to modify His plan. 
Well, and what comes of it ? Do you yield to your 
short-sighted, untrained child and refrain from the 
way indicated by wisdom and affection ? No ; you 
just proceed according to wise system. You 
trust to the years to set the matter right. And 
the child suffers, endures, gets chastisement, and 
goes through quite a tangled experience of life. 
This is analogous to God's procedure with His 
children ot a larger growth/ Our place is in 
the world. As things are arranged a man pays 
the cost of his manhood in the hard coin of per- 
sonal resistance and conquest. It is a tremen- 
dous strain upon his little strength and frail 
spirit to thread his way through the world and 
not swerve to the right or left, and not turn 
aside to cull its bright seductive flowers. And a 
great many of us fail to control ourselves and give 
the good spirit full opportunity to possess our 
hearts and confirm us in the right. I knew a little 
girl who came to visit a neighbor. A great flower 
garden surrounded the old home, and the little girl 
had been taught to leave the flowers alone ; they did 
not belong to her ; she might look upon them. But 



96 Courage and Comfo?'t that Concern 

that was the extent of her legitimate enjoyment. 
But one day the child wandered through the 
garden alone. Those flowers were indescribably en- 
ticing. They seemed to say, " pick me ! pick ! how 
beautiful I am ! how fragrant !" And this little girl 
yielded to their persuasions. And when she had 
culled a beautiful bouquet the recollection of com- 
mands and instructions surged through her soul. 
How should she face the mistress and what excuse 
could she make ? I saw the child enter the house. 
Her face was a curious study ; wrong was there, and 
disobedience, and a certain air of deprecation : but 
pride, and battle, and determination were there. 
She crossed the room with her flowers, showed 
them with charming grace to the mistress, and 
suavely said : " You see, I have helped myself." 
Yes, indeed ! She had helped herself. And that is 
human nature. And that is the tone and language 
of statement as we make explanation to conscience 
and to God concerning the lapses and disobedi- 
ences which result from our disloyalty to the 
divine procedure. The bright things of life as well 
as the dark things of life have to be faced. 
Every good gift and every perfect gift cometh 
down from God. But a great many things that 
have an appearance of pleasure impartation, things 
that are wrong, bad, unholy, shameful in them- 
selves, or in their relations, are to be passed un- 
touched ; and it may prove just as hard to deny 
ourselves these very things as it is grievous and 



The Ministry of Trouble. 97 

painful to endure the rougher struggle with trouble, 
and harassment, and anxiety. " You see I have 
helped myself." It will not satisfy conscience or 
God. Whatever may be said as to extenuating cir- 
cumstances — right is right, and obedience is obedi- 
ence, and character is character. We are put into 
the world. Here is the appointed field for our service. 
This is the disciplinary epoch. There is a noble, 
individual career. But it touches sorrow, iniquity, 
affliction, crime, wretchedness, at every point of the 
course. That is according to the ordainment of the 
Almighty. " I do not pray that thou shouldest take 
them out of the world ; I pray that thou shouldest 
keep them from the evil." 

Now, allegiance to this truth signifies infinite suc- 
cour to the Christian heart. 

We might as well quit the making such prayers 
as dictate in absolute terms the course of God in 
respect to ourselves. Even our Saviour did not 
venture upon such unqualified petition. It was 
his heart and his mind to do God's will. So he sub- 
mitted to suffering with no thought of evasion. 
The keenness of his anguish can not be measured. 
He asked that the cup might pass away if it were 
God's will. " Nevertheless, not my will but thine 
be done." And you will observe how these experi- 
ences of great agony were followed by the ministry 
of heaven. After Christ was tempted angels min- 
istered to him. During his Gethsemane trial an- 
other heavenly messenger strengthened him. The 



98 Courage and Comfort that Concern 

bitter cry upon the cross was changed to one of per- 
fect resignation. , " Father, into thy hands I com- 
mend my spirit." He meets the wickedness and 
the sufferingness that belong to the world life. 
But He meets these things to the end that He may 
conquer them, confirm His soul in its mastery, re- 
veal His character t;o men, and achieve His sublime 
mission. 

Friends, the mastership of life is not to be gained 
by playing coward and hiding us away from trouble. 
You are not taught to pray, that God shall remove 
you from trial whether it accords with the divine will 
or not. You need not expect to grow into stalwart- 
ness and robustness of Christian character by any 
desertion from duty, or any flinching under pain, or 
any retirement from discipline. " I pray not that 
thou shouldest take them out of the world." Neither 
are you to make any such prayer. God will take you 
out of the world in good time. God will remove 
the thorn in the flesh on proper occasion. God will 
straighten the tangle of circumstances when He 
sees fit. "I pray that thou shouldest keep them 
from the evil." That is the prayer you need to 
make. You are sure as to the rightness, the wis- 
dom, the blessedness of such a course. 

How much it all means to us toilsome, disheart- 
ened people. Is it possible that these very occa- 
sions and experiences which we have thought to 
avoid are not only the disciplines that shape us 
into nobility, but are also the very means by which 



The Ministry of Trouble. 99 

God makes closest approach to our soul and gives 
sweetest testimony as to the realness of His pres- 
ence ! Is it possible that God employs this rigid 
system to press us into thought upon Himself, and 
to urge us into glad assurance of His divine help- 
fulness ! Is it possible that God selects this kind 
of life apprenticeship with the purpose of courting 
us into a great, palpitant, victorious, all-ministering 
sympathy with men ? 

Man of business, pursue your honorable career 
seeking that help in trial and gloom which is vouch- 
safed you. That is your line of prayer and labor. 
Woman of sorrows, pine not that you are griev- 
ously circumstanced. " Come unto Me * * and 
I will give you rest." That is your line of prayer 
and labor. Man, woman, whatever your sphere and 
condition of life, be it joy or grief, health or sick- 
ness, household worries or community persecutions, 
envious successes or ignominious defeats, your line 
of prayer and labor is marked. Learn to brave the 
world. Learn to use the world. Learn to meet the 
ills and allurements and contradictions of the 
world with such faith in the support of Christ, with 
such appropriation of the strength in Christ that 
you shall yourself be conqueror and more than 
conqueror. 



ADJUSTMENT. 



ADJUSTMENT. 

"Unto the praise of His glory." — Ephe. i: 14. 

The valley views are narrow and hampered. It 
is a small world that unfolds itself to the common 
gaze. And as one tarries down amid the narrow- 
ness and limitation of the valley a certain interpre- 
tation of life that accords with these conditions 
will result. It becomes a necessity that we make 
occasional journey to the mountains — that we leave 
the plain for a season, so that our horizon shall 
broaden and expand until the eye and the imagina- 
tion weary of the stretch. What marvellous changes 
are wrought in the life by such experience. We 
have been leading a life of details and pettinesses — 
we have been hemmed in by hills and circumstances, 
and now it is determined that we ascend some 
Himalaya height that shall correct our vision, give 
us a good sweep of landscape and prepare us for 
truer measurement of the world. So we stand on 
the summit of the mountain. We have severed 
ourselves from the distant, meagre, restricted, un- 
inspiring conditions. The beautiful, endless pano- 
rama stretches away into exquisite dimness. We 
command the sublimity of nature. Miles upon 
miles of great fields and vast forests, valley after 
valley, and mountain after mountain, skies that are 



104 Courage and Comfort that Concern 

immeasurable in compass, the silver threads of 
swift-descending streams, and the radiancy of lake- 
lets that hide themselves modestly within the covert 
of obscure nooks, the curious, changeful play of 
shadow and sunshine through the noble vision. Ah! 
these words will not paint the view and these words 
will not interpret the subtle inspiritment that com- 
municates itself to«the observant, sympathetic, ap- 
preciative soul. It means enfranchisement to many 
a heart. It means newness and largeness of plan, 
thought, experience. And that is the history of 
truth-views. We press so near to the things that 
concern our prosaic, monotonous living, we restrict 
our intimacies so closely to care, pain, tribulation, 
worry, we abide so industriously in the valleys of 
small vision that we forfeit the majestic conceptions 
of truth that contain noble impulses and infinite 
potency of good. I ask you to stand with me upon 
the Himalaya heights of the divine revelation. I 
ask you to gaze with me upon that vast, sublime, 
inspiring truth-view indicated by the words, "Unto 
the praise of His glory." We want the stimulation 
and the exaltation that are fathered by occasional 
mountain top visions of truth. 

Note first the theatre. "In the beginning God 
created the heavens and the earth." This were 
to the praise of His glory. " The heavens declare 
the glory of God and the firmament sheweth His 
handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech and night 
unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech 



The Ministry of Trouble. 105 

nor language ; their voice cannot be heard. Their 
line is gone out through all the earth, and their 
words to the end of the world. In them hath He 
set a tabernacle for the sun, * * whose going 
forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit 
unto the ends of it ; and there is nothing hid from 
the heat thereof." — Psalm xix. This were "to the 
praise of His glory." As one gazes into the systems 
of the universe, as one makes effort to count 
the myriad hosts of suns which centre their own 
satellites, as one measures our little planet and 
then multiplies its bulk and motion and law by 
the infinite mathematics of Jehovah — it is not a 
difficult task to translate these things into a phrase 
of such magnitude as "unto the praise of His glory." 
But we have to do with small- part of this infinite 
universe. Our scope of vision is very circumscribed. 
The theatre narrows itself to this little world. But 
the gaze which we put upon it quickens us into 
awe and adoration. What beautiful and splendid 
stage for the evolution of human nature ! Did you 
ever give long and earnest thought to the variety, 
delicacy, richness, perfection, beauty, multiplicity 
of design evidenced in the world ? It must be ap- 
propriate theatre with all the many and needful 
accessories to a full, regal, complex life. So nature 
is fashioned after the divine idea. "And God saw 
that it was good." Outlines, colors, forms, combi- 
nations — they were all ordained so that they should 
truly minister to mind, and they were wrought into 

G 



106 Courage and Comfort that Concern 

divine landscapes. Mountains, seas, plains, valleys, 
rivers, Arctic ices and Tropic breezes, they were set 
to do his bidding and serve the grand finale of the 
earth mission. Verdant fields, blossomful gardens, 
curious foliage, fruitful vines, they are made as 
loyal helpers, contributing their allotment to the 
ravishment of earth. And when life throbs 
through all the realm and this paradise invites to 
its riches and its splendors, when brilliant insects 
fling their beauteousness into the sunshine, and birds 
freight the air with rarest music, and flowers, trees, 
beasts, skies, landscapes, do homage to the wise 
Creator, shall we not join our glad acclaim and 
say "unto the praise of His glory?" " The earth is 
the Lord's and the fullness thereof. The world and 
they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it 
upon the seas and established it upon the floods. 
* * Lift up your heads, O ye gates ; and be ye 
lifted up, ye everlasting doors ; and the king of 
glory shall come in. * * Who is this king of 
glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the king of glory." 
— Psalm xxiv. This is the theatre " Unto the praise 
of His glory." 

We note the dramatis personal. Who are the per- 
sons of the drama? And God said, "Let us make 
man in our image, after our likeness ; and let them 
nave dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the 
fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the 
earth, and over every other creeping thing that 
creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in 



The Ministry of Trouble. 107 

liis own image — in the image of God created he 
him; male and female created he them." — Gen. i: 
26-27. A race is born into the world. Tribes and 
peoples and nations are begotten. Men and women 
with unreckonable dispositions, diversities, charac- 
teristics, opportunities, experiences, histories. 
These are the actors. " Unto the praise of His 
glory." And they are a curious multitudinous host 
— these persons of the drama. They are immortal 
spirits, and they wear mortal bodies. This garment 
of flesh is the palpable and insistent thing that first 
obtrudes itself upon notice. "I will praise thee," 
sings David, " for I am fearfully and wonderfully 
made." — Psal. cxxxix: 14. Even this body seems to 
say, " Unto the praise of His glory." "Christ shall 
be magnified in my body,"" says Paul — Phil, i: 24. 
" What ! know ye not that your body is the temple 
of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have 
of God, and ye are not your own ? For ye are 
bought with a price ; therefore, glorify God in your 
body. * * I. Cor. vi : 19-20. A physical na- 
ture is knitted for a season to the spiritual nature. 
But the physical nature was adjusted deftly, wisely, 
helpfully to the spiritual. This body, with all its 
intricate, multiform machinery, was designed to 
serve the purposes of the spirit. It was not made 
to trammel us, or distress us, or perplex us, or de- 
stroy us. The marvelous, beautiful anatomy was 
fashioned into an apt and generous responsiveness 
to the will of the spirit. " Unto the praise of His 
glory." 



108 Courage and Comfort that Concern 

Although this body is the obtrusive factor in the 
man composition, it is the heart, mind, spirit that 
receive chief emphasis. Here it is that we image 
our creator. And what field for illustration in re- 
spect to the praise of God's glory ! We count it 
notable achievement when Handel writes his ora- 
torio and guides the great organ and the many 
varied choir into the melodious, majestic rendition 
of it. A thousand and a million notes are woven 
into a perfect web of rarest music. And the ora- 
torio pours its regal, joyous way into the souls of 
men with all the wealth of its precious inspirit- 
ment. We count it a notable achievement for 
Handel. And we quicken with admiration and 
reverence when we study some great harmoni- 
ous, artistic structure like St. Peter's Church. What 
masterful genius swayed the rugged body and sen- 
sitive spirit of Michael Angelo ? Did man design 
and execute this temple of beauty ? Mosaics and 
statues, pillared aisles and frescoed ceilings, gor- 
geous draperies and noble paintings, sculptured 
arches and bronzed portals, all wrought with a sym- 
metry of thought and a melodiousness of expression 
that are superlative ! We make obeisance to such 
mind. And how we glow with fervid enthusiasm 
when we sit us down before the work of Shake- 
speare, and quench our great thirst at this inex- 
haustible fountain of truth, and yield us to the 
magic of that spirit which sways the mind of the 
world ! We speak our mighty words of loyal 



The Ministry of Trouble. 109 

appreciation, and they seem tame and worth- 
less. Ah ! these creators of art, music, litera- 
ture, they amaze and thrill us with their precious 
evidences of mastery and genius. Their great 
works stimulate men to an earnestness and emula- 
tion that are full of good promise and profitable issue. 
But who made Handel, Angelo, Shakespeare ? There 
is a Supreme creative mind that fathers all genius, 
ability, life. And these achievements, which come 
as the consummate flower of manhood, are simply 
phrasings of our theme, " Unto the praise of His 
glory." 

And there is the heart work. It opens to us 
the richest things of the world experience. A 
sweet sensitiveness to the ministry of nature, of 
men, of God, that gives fresh scope to the life 
powers. We are made in the divine image. It is 
love that now throbs its answer back to love. It 
were enough to move a man into richest transports, 
this force, and enterprise, and impulse of human 
affection. You see the mother bending over the 
helpless babe ; love graces every movement and 
expression. That mother would yield her life for 
the sake of the little one. You meet David and 
Jonathan tied into a oneness that sorrow, conflict, 
terror, defeat, cannot break or destroy. .Or it is the 
union of husband and wife. Vicissitudes of for- 
tune are many. Sickness, disappointment, ruin, 
separation, infamy, duty, death — they may work 
their mission and gloom the life but love yields 



no Courage and Comfort that Concern 

not one whit of service, confidence, devotion. It 
triumphs over all difficulties and never meets rebuke 
or defeat. Perhaps it is affection that centres in 
some special class of men. The love of soldier for 
comrade and commander, the love of workman for 
his true, strong leader, the love of missioner for the 
poor, the lost, the depraved, the love of Great-heart 
for the company of the rebellious — it matters not. 
It is all witness to this, mighty, palpitant, resist- 
less love-nature that reflects the heart of the 
Almighty. And God who is love, hath made us in 
His own image. 

But why should we particularize ? These are the 
persons of the drama. Men and women, served 
by physical nature, endowed with splendid gifts of 
intellect and affection, immortal spirits, born with 
an individuality that is unique. And these persons 
of the drama, a great, countless, shifting motley 
company, find a world the theatre for their move- 
ment. 

And now we name the drama. It is called Redemp- 
tion. It was all in the mind of the Creator ere time 
was differenced from eternity. " According as He 
hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the 
world, that we should be holy and without blame 
before Him in love." — Eph. 1:4. The theatre is 
prepared. The persons of the drama begin their 
entrances. The first parents are sharing the joys 
of Eden. It is a matter of self-determination. They 
are free to do their will, and God puts upon them 



The Ministry of Trouble. 1 1 1 

the divine obligation of obedience. They choose to 
eat of the tree of good and evil. Paradise is sud- 
denly gloomed. " They heard the voice of the Lord 
God walking in the garden in the cool of the day." 
They face the curse. They are expelled from 
Eden. The first act of this mighty world drama 
is concluded. 

What endless task of human conquest lies before 
this race of men ! Who dare voice any hope ? Lo 
the very curse treasures the germ of infinite blessing. 
" It shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his 
heel." But the race multiplies, waxes wicked and 
presumptuous. " And God saw that the wickedness 
of man was great in the earth, and that every imag- 
ination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil 
continually." The flood came. The second act of 
this great world drama is concluded. 

The bow of promises guides men into better hoping. 
Abraham is called. " In thee shall all the families 
of the earth be blessed." — Gen. xii: 3. We look 
into the eastern horizon and we detect the signs 
of the gray dawning. Moses appears. The Lord 
summons him to leadership. God said unto Moses, 
" I am that I am ;" " Go." The chosen people are 
guided into the Promised Land. God makes them 
pause \>y Sinai and communicates the Law. The 
nation then begins its strange, adventurous, check- 
ered, eventful narrative. Judges, generals, kings, 
prophets, priests, they all share the responsibilities 
of authority. They all pursue their diverse, antago- 



ii2 Courage and Comfort that Concern 

nistic, loyal or rebellious courses. But the promise 
of some great deliverer stirs the entire national 
life. When David attains the sovereignty he does 
not rest in his achievement as the goal of Hebrew 
mastership. He sings his song of hopefulness. 
" The Lord said unto my Lord, ' Sit thou at my 
right hand, until I make thine enemies thy foot- 
stool. The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength 
out of Zion.' " — Psalms ex: 1-2. And then comes 
the large company of prophet workmen, rebuking 
Israel, counselling Israel, encouraging Israel ; all 
their mission converging in some statement concern- 
ing the Messiah. Isaiah voices the prophecy with 
tenderest pathos when he recites how " He hath 
borne our griefs and carried our sorrows "; * * how 
" He was wounded for our transgressions, He was 
bruised for our iniquities." — Isai. liii: 5. And Jere- 
miah continues the message of triumph — xxiii : 
5 and 6 — " Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, 
that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and 
a king shall rule and prosper, and shall execute 
judgment and justice in the earth ; * * and this 
is His name whereby He shall be called, the Lord 
our Righteousness." The world gets weary with 
its waiting. Nations seek the light with prayer- 
ful fervency. Vice, sin, crime, riot through the 
earth. Israel itself becomes the servitor of pagan 
Rome. The most shameless debauches and the 
most horrible crimes count for little — so thoroughly 
is conscience seared and the nobler nature crushed. 
The third act of the drama is concluded. 



The Ministry of Trouble. 113 

The fourth act comes apace. The Star of Beth- 
lehem appears. It betokens the desire of nations. 
" And suddenly there was with the angel a multi- 
tude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 
' glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, 
good-will toward men.' " — Luke ii: 13 and 14. It is 
the entrance of the central character. " And thou 
shalt call His name Jesus. For He shall save the peo- 
ple from their sins." How gentle and modest this 
divine man ! His early years pass away amid ob- 
scurity. In the fullness of time he enters upon the 
appointed public achievement. Miracle, instruc- 
tion, example, authority, leadership, they tell the 
course. Temptation, submission, transfiguration, 
crucifixion, resurrection, ascension ; what magni- 
tude of work — what majesty and significance of life 
are compressed into these brief years ! "And the 
clouds received Him out of sight." He said unto the 
disciples, " thus it was written and thus it behooved 
Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third 
day, and that repentance and remission of sins 
should be preached in His name among all nations ; 
* * " And it came to pass while He blessed them 
He was parted from them and carried up into 
heaven." And thus is concluded the fourth act of 
this drama of Redemption. 

The true hearts tarry at Jerusalem. The Holy 
Ghost descends. The teachers are scattered through 
the nations. "I will draw all men unto me." The 
fifth act of the mighty drama opens. The fall of 



ii4 Courage and Comfort that Concern 

man, the ruin of the race, the struggle of the nations, 
the sacrifice of Christ — they precede the great, 
last act. The work of regeneration and rejuvena- 
tion begins at Jerusalem. First, it is the little 
company of disciples ; then a larger company of 
citizens ; then bands of neighbor people ; then 
scattered churches of Palestine ; then multiplied 
Stations through the Roman empire ; then at last 
the empire itself in all its mighty reach of power and 
splendor. The centuries come and go. Eighteen and 
nearly nineteen of them are wrought into history. 
The banner of the cross appears in Europe. It 
passes into Africa ; it pushes its way through the 
waters and glorifies the new born nations of the 
western continent. It continues its progress of 
triumph until it declares its message amid the isles 
of the sea. The whole earth becomes girded with 
this soldier-service of Christ. Millions upon mil- 
lions march to the music of the Christian hope. 
Men, tribes, nations, swing into the majestic 
line. "He whose right it is shall reign." "All 
hail the power of Jesus' name." Earth redeemed, 
the race regenerated, man schooled into the Chris- 
tian character — "Unto the praise of His glory." 
Friends, is it not a grand and majestic theatre — 
this curiously builded world ? Is it not a wonderful, 
myriad-sided company, this human race, the per- 
sons of the drama ? Is it not a drama of infinite 
interest, significance, sublimity — this drama of re- 
demption ? 



The Ministry of Trouble. 115 

And we share the movement. We are persons of 
the drama. What honor is put -upon us that we are 
wrought into this magnificent action which gathers 
the ages into its compass and issues "unto the 
praise of His glory! " And this is the mountain top 
vision of truth. And how it quickens the hero 
spirit within us ! Pain, care, trial, suffering, tribu- 
lation, discipline, they are remanded to their right- 
ful places. The repulsiveness and the fearfulness 
of these things are interpreted into language of 
generous incitement. Pain — that is subsidiary, 
essential factor in the massive workmanship of 
time. Care — that means judicious investment of 
self in the common labors of men. Worry — that 
is the small friction of the mind which we divert 
into channels of faith. Tribulation — that is task 
of flail and threshing floor with good purpose 
of fine, clean harvest. Suffering — that is mode 
of conquest that mirrors the very spirit of Jesus. 
Discipline — that is the divine procedure which car- 
ries infinite potency of personal achievement. Yes, 
when we stand upon the Himalaya heights and get 
the large, clear, unobstructed, illimitable view of 
life and world, trouble subsides into narrow and 
obscure proportions, and we learn how perfect ad- 
justment is the will and work of God. We will rest 
us in the comfort and the courage of His word. We 
will listen to the messages that press us into heroic 
service. Living a love that centres in Jesus we will 
be strong to hope "Unto the praise of His glory." 







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